Teen's term angers father

A Mississippi teenager who cut school to accompany a friend on his murderous trip home to Omaha's Elkhorn area will spend the next two decades in a Nebraska prison.

Ryan King was sentenced Tuesday to 40 to 45 years in prison for helping Ryan Carson plan the killing of Carson's father, Brian Carson. Under Nebraska's sentencing guidelines, King will be eligible for parole in 20 years. He faced 50 to 55 years in prision.

King, 17 at the time of last year's killing, received the longest sentence imposed so far on any of the group of co-defendants who have come to be known as the Elkhorn Eight.

Jack King, Ryan's father, burst out of the courtroom in a rage on Tuesday, condemning Douglas County District Judge James Gleason for what King called “a hanging” of an outsider.

“Omaha takes care of its own people. They're hanging (my son) because he's from Mississippi.”

Prosecutors say Ryan Carson had found out that his father was sleeping with his girlfriend, Nicole Walker, and decided to beat his father to death in their Elkhorn- area home.

Ryan King told police that he, Carson and a friend, Colton Novascone, drove to Nebraska overnight from Mississippi.

Police found the body of Brian Carson, 45, wrapped in a blanket in the trunk of his own car on April 5, 2009. Authorities say he had died of blunt-force trauma to the head.

Ryan King's attorney, Tom Rowen, and Jack King said Ryan King left at some point during the slaying, never touching Brian Carson.

Yet Ryan King received a stiffer sentence than Sara Carson, who lured her father to the house with a phone call, Jack King said. Sara Carson's case was handled in juvenile court, and she was placed at the state girls' facility.

Teresa Carson “was happy as a pig” the day after her estranged husband's death, boasting about the good life she would build with his life insurance, Jack King said. She received 18 to 20 years as an accessory, accused of luring her husband to his death.

Nicole Walker, the girlfriend, is serving four to five years, also as an accessory.

Still to be sentenced are Ryan Carson, the ringleader, and Novascone.

Jack King said Ryan Carson had gone to Mississippi to escape his family and had built a good life for himself. He regularly attended church, had a place to live and had the Kings as friends.

But even hundreds of miles away, Ryan Carson was tormented, Jack King said: Brian Carson would call and talk about sleeping with Walker. His mother would call to report that Brian Carson had beaten her again. His sister would call and talk about all the bad behavior at home.

Father and son regularly threatened to kill each other, Jack King said.

On the day that Ryan Carson decided to return to Nebraska, Jack King was at the hospital with another son. Ryan King decided to cut classes to drive to Nebraska with Ryan Carson, 19 at the time, and Novascone, who is 17, Jack King said.

Rowen characterized his client as a good but immature kid.

“He didn't think what happened was really going to happen,” Rowen told the judge. When he realized the killing was going to be carried out, Rowen said, “he retreated” from the house.

Ryan King later agreed to cooperate with the state. But he wasn't called upon to testify. All eight defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges.

Rowen presented sentencings from a number of other conspiracy cases that he said had similar circumstances. The longest sentence he cited was 20 to 30 years.

Rowen also asked the judge to compare the culpability of each of the defendants in Brian Carson's death. He said Teresa Carson surely was more culpable than his client.

Ryan King's actions in the killing do not justify taking away his entire young adult life, Rowen said.

Chief Deputy Douglas County Attorney Brenda Beadle said each defendant was charged in accordance with the evidence against them. If Ryan King had information that Teresa Carson was more involved than he was, he didn't present it to prosecutors, she said.

Contact the writer:

444-1116, judith.nygren@owh.com

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