LYNDON, Kansas – An Osage County jury Monday recommended the death penalty for 48-year-old James Kraig Kahler in the killings of four members of his family.

Chief District Judge Phillip Fromme will consider the jury’s recommendation when sentencing Kahler. Sentencing is set for Oct. 11 at 9:30 a-m.

The jury last week found Kahler guilty of capital murder in the 2009 killings of his wife, Karen Kahler; their two teenage daughters, Emily and Lauren; and Karen Kahler’s grandmother, Dorothy Wight. The killings occurred at Wight’s home in Burlingame.

Monday is the first time a Kansas jury has recommend a sentence of death since March 2009, when Justin Thurber was sentenced to death for the 2007 rape and murder of Cowley County Community College student Jodi Sanderholm.

 

So far, no one on death row has been put to death here in the state of Kansas.