OTTAWA, Kan. — After a day and a half of testimony in the preliminary hearing, a Franklin County, Kan., judge determined on Wednesday that prosecutors have enough evidence to try Kyle Flack, 28, for the April 2013 murders of four people.
Flack’s mother, Tammy McCoy, was in the courtroom as prosecutors presented their evidence. She listened as each witness testified in support of the prosecution’s belief that Flack brutally killed Steven White, 31, Andrew Stout, 30, Kaylie Bailey, 21, and 18-month-old Lana Bailey. She listened as authorities described the way each died.
White was shot in the head and chest. Stout was killed by five shotgun blasts to the head, neck and back. Kaylie Bailey was raped, bound, gagged and shot in the back of the head and neck.
The baby was shot in the back with a shotgun. A pathologist testified that Lana didn’t die immediately, and was stuffed in a suitcase and later dumped in a creek.
“Anybody is capable of violence. Anybody can get mad. But what he’s accused of doing in that house, I can’t see my son doing,” said McCoy, in an exclusive interview with FOX 4’s Shannon O’Brien.
McCoy said she was especially close to Andrew Stout. He and Kyle had been friends for a long time.
“Andrew was my son for 23 years,” McCoy said. “The boys were all brothers. He called me ‘mom’ half the time.”
McCoy said she still loves her son. When asked if, after hearing all the testimony, she thinks he’ll be found guilty, McCoy said she thinks he’ll go to prison for some of the charges.
“I don’t think he’ll be found guilty of everything there, but he’s not innocent of everything,” she said. “He’s got problems.”
Flack will be arraigned on April 22. Prosecutors have seven days after that to decide if they will pursue the death penalty for Kaylie and Lana’s murders. According to prosecutors, there are specific criteria necessary for a murder to be considered a ‘capital’ crime, and White and Stout’s murder did not qualify.
Vic Braden, Kansas deputy attorney general and part of the prosecution team, said the decision to seek the death penalty is a ‘deliberate and thoughtful process.’
McCoy said she doesn’t know what happened in that house anymore than anyone else does, but she said her heart goes out to all the victims’ families.
“To find out Kyle is accused of it,” she said while remembering the group of friends. “I know my son better than that, I think, but do we really know anybody? I don’t know.”
Click here for past stories on the Franklin County murders.
