TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A woman charged with killing her ex-husband and his fiancée in 2002 in Topeka has taken over her own defense in her retrial.
WIBW-TV reports that 60-year-old Dana Lynn Chandler told Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios on Friday that she didn’t want two attorneys who are experienced in criminal law representing her. But Rios immediately instructed the two to remain on the case as Chandler’s standby counsel.
Chandler was convicted in 2012 of the 2002 killings of Michael Sisco and Karen Harkness.
She was the focus of the investigation almost immediately after the couple was shot to death at Harkness’ home in Topeka, although she lived in Denver at the time. She wasn’t arrested until 2011 after a cold case unit investigated. She was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
But the Kansas Supreme Court overturned her conviction in 2018 because of misconduct by the prosecutor. The justices found that prosecutors falsely claimed at trial that her former spouse had taken out a protection from abuse order against her.
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