John Robert Kastner Trial

The Murder Of Lori Kastner

John Kastner was an English teacher at Webster High School and former athletic director and coach. Lori Kastner was an attorney for the Oklahoma Supreme Court, until about a month before her murder, when she left to take a non-profit job.

Officers say that John Robert Kastner called 911 around 4am on Wednesday, June 25, 2008. He told them that an intruder came into their home and demanded money and to see the teenage girl they'd taken into their home as a daughter. When he told the intruders that she wasn't there the intruder shot Lori Kastner in the head two times.

Kastner said he struggled with the intruder and was shot in the hand. The murder weapon belonged to the Kastners.

John Kastner purchased the .22-caliber revolver used to kill his wife just one week before the shooting, according to police.

Later that morning, as he was getting his hand treated at the hospital, Kastner told a different version of the events to Officer Steve Douglas.

Kastner told Douglas he woke up to the sound of car doors slamming and saw a man standing at the foot of the bed holding a gun that had been on the dining room table. Kastner said the man then shot his wife, who then sat up before the man shot her again, the officer said.

Douglas testified that Kastner was calm while recounting the story, which included a description of a struggle with the intruder that continued into another room. He said Lori Kastner was lying on her left side with her arm under her pillow, as if she were asleep.

There were no signs of a struggle at the crime scene. Nothing was knocked over.

Police say Kastner told them the family was leaving for Israel on Wednesday. Officers found the family's passports in the street when they arrived at the home.

John and Lori's two children, a girl age 9 and a boy age 15, were home at the time but not injured. Their adopted 19-year-old daughter wasn't home at the time.

Only two days later, Friday, June 27, 2008, John Kastner was arrested on a first degree murder charge in the death of his wife.

Police said that the story fell apart as investigators quizzed Kastner about details of the crime.

"Numerous different red flags came up with the statement, how he laid things out as occurring," said police spokesman Leland Ashley. "It didn't fit."

Kastner's lies began unfolding. He had made financial promises to donate thousands of dollars to the school all the while being deeply in debt.

He also told family and friends that he was a member of the Israeli Special Forces and that he had access to millions of dollars due to a charitable corporation associated with the Israeli military, according to the police affidavit. He had told his family that they were leaving for a trip to Israel via a private plane on the day of the murder, but investigators said they determined no such corporation existed and that no flight was scheduled.

The Israel trip was for the family to start a new life, with Lori Kastner taking a job that John Kastner had lined up for her with the "713 Corp.," according to testimony. Lori Kastner had quit her job as an attorney with the Oklahoma Supreme Court to take the position.

John Kastner did not obtain a passport or help pack for the trip.

Kastner had told his kids that their mother, Lori, would be a co-owner of the 713 Corp., which was named after Kastner's unit in the Israel Defense Forces. Police reports state that Kastner has no known connection to the Israeli military and that no such corporation exists.

His daughter, Sally, testified at the preliminary hearing that they were expecting to have an income of between $5 million and $6 million per year.

John Kastner "said he saved someone very important and we were pretty much going to have a good life with shopping and having a private plane that was the company's and having bodyguards," she testified.

Jim Harper, who served as co-athletic director with John Kastner at Webster, said Kastner told him he was inheriting about $100 million from his father's estate. He said Kastner told him his father had died about 20 years ago and had wisely invested $20 million at that time.

Kastner's father is living in Owasso.

Now, John Robert Kastner wants to handle his own court defense on his first-degree murder charge.

Assistant Public Defender Marny Hill, who has been handling Kastner's legal work, told District Judge Clancy Smith that Kastner is "extremely involved in his own defense" and wants to represent himself.

First Assistant District Attorney Doug Drummond requested a September 2009 trial date which Kastner objected to. Kastner wanted the trial at a sooner date, but Drummond has a full schedule until then.

We will be following this strange case.

Resources...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20080826_14_A1_Former595518&archive=yes

http://www.news-star.com/homepage/x390620202/Tulsa-man-arrested-in-death-of-wife

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0608/531653.html

http://newsok.com/ex-teacher-will-stand-trial-in-tulsa-in-wifes-shooting-death/article/3290947

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20081223_14_A1_JohnRo398787&archive=yes

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