By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
WESTMORELAND — Family and friends of the late Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness packed rows in a courtroom gallery Tuesday for the sentencing of Dana Chandler to consecutive life sentences without an opportunity for parole for 50 years for shooting the couple to death while they slept.
It was an emotional closure to a legal odyssey that began July 7, 2002, with the murder of Chandler’s ex-husband, Sisco, and his fiancee, Harkness, in Topeka. The murders fractured the respective families and frustrated Shawnee County investigators until Chandler was charged in 2011 after detectives built a case anchored in circumstantial evidence.
Chandler’s first conviction in the double-homicide was overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court due to prosecutor misconduct that culminated with disbarment of an attorney. A second trial ended in a hung jury. The third — moved to Pottawatomie County in search of an untainted jury pool — led to a conviction in March on two counts of first-degree murder.
Chandler’s daughter Hailey Seel, who was 17 at the time of her father’s death, faced her mother in court to offer a personal accounting of the torment she endured for a majority of her life. She said Chandler had a controlling, narcissistic personality that ended her parents’ marriage and harmed their children.
“I truly see her now as the evil killer,” Seel said. “I hate it. I don’t want to call you evil killer, but I can’t live in a fairy tale.”
“Boy, was I fooled. I believed that she loved me. She stole my dad. She stole my identity. She stole my strength. She stole my peace. My heart was torn out and stomped,” she said.
Seel urged Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios to have mercy on Chandler if the defendant expressed remorse after denying for decades responsibility for the deaths. If Chandler refused to express guilt, Seel said, the judge should apply the maximum sentence.
During Seel’s remarks, Chandler shot out of her seat to put in the court record that the judge was “glaring at me, shooting me daggers.” Chandler said Rios had permitted the sentencing hearing, which Chandler unsuccessfully sought to postpone, to devolve into a three-ring circus by allowing cameras in the courtroom. She said the video and still photographers were detrimental to the legal process, and were driven merely by profit motives.
“I refuse to sit here and be treated like a piece of meat,” Chandler said. “I choose not to be made a spectacle of.”
Chandler, who held a handful of papers against the left side of her face throughout the proceeding in an attempt to block the view of photographers, delivered about two hours of combative and bombastic remarks after condemned in victim impact statements by Seel and her brother, Dustin Sisco, as well as others who knew the deceased couple well.
Chandler’s minutiae-filled presentation, which featured a series of comments denying guilt and revealed her intent to appeal, included allegations Judge Rios as well as Topeka prosecutors and police investigators, witnesses at trial and even a court reporter engaged in unethical behavior to bring about the convictions.
“I have always maintained my innocence,” Chandler said. “I continue to maintain my innocence. I was not in Topeka, Kansas, on July 7. I never owned or possessed a 9 millimeter firearm. What is happening in this courtroom is a grave injustice. I was not the one who killed them.”
At one point, Chandler tried to blame the slaying on attorney Jeff Sutton, who was Harkness’ son-in-law and was, in her view, “greedy” and “mean.”
Erin Sutton, Harkness’ daughter, said during the hearing Chandler deserved two life sentences without the possibility of parole from the Kansas Department of Corrections.
“My mom’s absence leaves an unfillable hole in my heart,” Erin Sutton said. “Time for all of us to have some semblance of peace.”
Deputy District Attorney Charles Kitt requested a pair of consecutive life sentences with a minimum of 25 years in prison on each count before eligible for parole. That matched the sentence handed down by Rios.
“This was cold-blooded and calculated,” Kitt said. “What this defendant has demonstrated throughout this proceeding is she will not reform. Every witness who didn’t agree with her was lying, according to her.”
Rios said she didn’t personally know the victims, but said she saw them through the eyes of participants in the hearing.
“I understand that there are no words that this court can say to change what happened, to bring back Mike and Karen, to be able to live all those missed moments,” Rios said. “I understand that there is no justice in that sense.”
Before Rios pronounced the sentence, Chandler said she didn’t want to remain in the courtroom if Rios was going to say disparaging things about her. This was the same judge that Chandler had accused during the hearing of losing her impartiality during the trial, placing her “thumb on the scale to benefit the state” and managing the courtroom in a way that made it so “I didn’t get a fair trial.”
“I have no intention of saying nasty, hateful things about you,” Rios replied. Chandler remained in the courtroom.
Murders lacking a clear-cut perpetrator and the resulting courtroom drama was presented to a national audience by “48 Hours” in a series of broadcasts. The lack of physical evidence connecting Chandler to the crimes raised doubts, but Chandler’s behavior did raise suspicions.
Shawnee County prosecutor Jacqie Spradling nevertheless won the initial 2012 trial, but did so by lying to the jury about nonexistent evidence. In 2018, the state Supreme Court overturned that conviction and disbarred Spradling from the practice of law.
Mike Kagay, the Shawnee County district attorney who inherited the Chandler case, said justice prevailed despite decades of evasion, delay and doubt.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the victims’ families,” he said. “Their strength, dignity and trust have been a source of inspiration throughout this process. We never wavered in our belief that truth matters — and that these victims deserved justice. When the path became difficult, we pressed forward because justice demanded it.”
He said the district attorney’s office had confidence in the evidence, judicial process and the ability of jurors to see the truth.
“Let it be clear: We do not retreat. We do not bend. We pursue justice relentlessly. The rule of law endures only when it is upheld with integrity, diligence and resolve,” Kagay said.
