Death penalty denied, family probes civil suit

The family members of two murdered children cried foul when they learned the killer would not face death for his crime.

Carillo Dean admitted in a Manassas courtroom Tuesday he killed his wife, 45-year-old Elizabeth Dean, and her children, 13-year-old Connor and 15-year-old Brittany on Feb. 12, 2009.

He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison April 1, but the childrens’ uncle, Kelly Kirk, says the family until three weeks ago was assured by Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney Paul Ebert that prosecutors were going to seek the death penalty in the case.

In a meeting earlier this month, Kirk, and the children’s surviving father, Kevin Kirk, were called to Ebert’s office and were told prosecutors were going to seek a plea deal instead.

The family is now considering filing a civil suit against Dean, and possibly Prince William County officials.

In their meeting, Ebert told the family he feared Dean – who was unanimously well liked during his 23-year-term as a county park ranger – would plead insanity and that a jury could later find Dean not guilty, said Kelly Kirk.

Kirk said this was a stunning reversal in tactics from Ebert, a prosecutor who has secured more death row convictions than any other prosecutor in the state.

A psychiatrist hired by Ebert’s office found Dean not to be insane, but they did find that he suffered emotional problems.

Kirk also said Ebert was fearful defense attorneys would parade several county police officers on the stand, all of whom would testify to Dean’s upstanding character.

“After I heard that [during the meeting in early December] I said ‘good, and I’ll get 250 kids to take the stand to say how good Connor and Brittany were,’” said Kirk.

For the first time on Tuesday, Kirk’s family heard what he called haunting 911 tapes recorded the night of the murders.

That night Dean called authorities on a police non-emergency number and asked for Prince William County police Sgt. Pete Paradis to come to the phone, saying he had an “emergency,” said Kirk.

Paradis had an unrecorded conversation with Dean, and later arrived at the scene with no officers or emergency crews present, placed Dean in handcuffs at his request, and went inside to find Elizabeth and Connor dead, and Brittany clinging to life.

After emergency crews finally arrived, she was flown to a nearby hospital where she later died.

Kirk admits the time between when Dean placed a call to Paradis and when emergency crews arrived may not have saved Brittany’s life, but a plea deal for man who “committed premeditated murder” is upsetting.

Testimony from Prince William police Detective Quentin Sallows revealed Dean killed his wife “because she had been nagging him for over two years,” that he killed Brittany because she didn’t do her math homework and killed Connor because he failed to complete his bible study, Insidenova.com reported.

“Three life sentences? If we lived in Maryland or D.C. than that would be OK, but we live in Virginia for a reason, because we have the death penalty, and we need to use it,” said Kirk