Friday morning testimony

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly

By Gwendolynne Larson (Contact)

Friday, June 27, 2008

During an interview with law-enforcement officers, the Topeka man accused of killing Americus teen Beau Arndt seemed shocked at what had happened and showed sorrow at the death.

Still, Theron Thomas Kent never admitted to shooting the 18-year-old who was hunting with two friends in northwest Lyon County on Dec. 15, 2007.

Kent is charged with involuntary manslaughter, attempted unlawful taking of wildlife, hunting without permission and criminal discharge of a firearm. Today is the fifth day of the trial.

Earlier, witnesses testified that Arndt was hunting with two friends in a farm field at Roads 310 and D when a single shot was fired from a passing pickup truck. Authorities found Kent by using the descriptionsof the truck Arndt’s friends saw along with information from a neighbor who helped Kent and his two hunting partners change a flat tire earlier that morning.

On Dec. 19, four days after the shooting, Bill Halvorsen, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation senior special agent, and Lyon County Deputy Pat Stevenson interviewed Kent at his Topeka business before driving him to Lyon County. Once here, they took Kent to the shooting scene, to the house where he had the flat tire, to the cabin in which his hunting party spent the night before the shooting and, finally, to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office where his interview was videotaped.

This morning, jurors watched the one-hour tape.

Kent, who volunteered to the interview after talking to his attorney, matter-of-factly answered questions from officers, who made sure he understood he was not under arrest and could stop the interview at any time.

Throughout the questioning, investigators tried to piece together a timeline of the morning of Dec. 15 and determine where Kent had gone when. He told investigators that, after fixing the flat tire, he drove north. When he reached the field at Roads 310 and D, he saw a coyote standing in the field. He opened the truck’s door, took his gun from the rack and fired one shot. The coyote ran into trees to the west.

Kent said he then drove off, passing a parked white truck after he crested a hill in the road. At that point, he also saw a man standing in a field with goose decoys.

“I seen a man up on, up by the hill halfway,” Kent told officers. “He got up. He was just standing there. He didn’t wave at me. He didn’t run.

“I didn’t know anything was going on. I drove on down the road. I didn’t think nothing about it.”

Every time the questions got close to the actual shooting, Kent sounded agitated and took deep breaths, as if to calm down.

At one point, he talked about the shooting range set up at the cabin. It’s in front of a hill, Kent said, because “I know how bullets can go.

“Oh, my God.”

“It just took off running,” he said of the coyote. “Usually you can see the bullet when it hits the snow and I didn’t see it. I truly didn’t see it.”

Later, he talked about meeting with Bob Arndt, Beau’s father, and answered questions about whether he’d heard news coverage of the shooting in which authorities released a description of the truck and gave the location. He said he hadn’t.

“I understand there was quite a bit going on, a lot of press,” Kent said.

“After seeing Bob — truly, guys, I would have done whatever I could to clear it up,” he said, trailing off.

“Oh, my,” he finished with a deep breath.