It’s a Wonderful Life (Without Parole)

Bryan Kohberger’s life without parole sentence, handed down for the murder four University of Idaho students in November 2022, inspired a number of spirited conversations about what constitutes a punishment that is "good enough" for an admittedly vicious killer. What is life really like for such a convict? 

Oh, I have a good example to share. 

Richard Daniel Starrett is a serial rapist, kidnapper, and murderer. He is also an A-1 con artist. One thing he is NOT is crazy. That was the opinion of this area's foremost forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Everett Kuglar. Starrett's attempted escape from a South Carolina prison in 2006 gave us occasion to revisit his 36-year-old insanity defense and how he put one over on the legal systems in two states. 

Dr. Kuglar, who passed away in September of that very year, was quite animated on the subject of Starrett and the way the defense team attempted to portray him as a sad victim of some terrible disease. The doctor was convinced that Starrett played members of the criminal justice system for collective fools during his Columbia County murder trial.  

It is a theory that has been shown to be quite true. 

I spent many hours listening to Dr. Kuglar opine on the topic of the criminally insane and the hundreds of cases he worked as Georgia's leading expert on the mental illnesses and actions of the state's most heinous deviants and killers. As he was the stepfather of two good friends, I was a guest in his home on numerous occasions. We ended up discussing Starrett and his legal maneuvers in great detail, as well as many of the other notorious cases he reviewed during his tenure. 

According to the good doctor, Starrett should have been eligible for an Academy Award for his performance during the trial, but NOT leniency. He played himself off as a feeble, muttering imbecile. His portrayal would have made Norman Bates stand up and cheer. 

It was all an act. 

He might have been crazy, but he was not insane. 

Danny Starrett lived a double life worthy of a Hollywood screenplay. An accomplished technician at the Savannah River Site, he grew up the golden boy in a respected family. He had a beautiful wife, a young daughter, and a keen interest in politics.  

He also had a voracious sexual appetite for young girls.  

He fed that appetite with well-planned criminal jaunts that left two victims forever tortured and another dead. 

Starrett's criminal career is legend in the Augusta area, ranking just behind serial killer and rapist Renaldo Rivera f as the most infamous criminal in local history. 

Pulitzer Prizewinning authors - and later Aiken residents - Steven Naifeh and the late Gregory White Smith wrote a book in 1995 detailing the life, crimes, and trials of the weirdo and his strangely defensive mother. 

"A Stranger in the Family" portrayed Starrett and his mother Gerry in a sympathetic light, and it showed quite clearly the strategy of his legal team - convince the court that Danny Starrett was insane and not responsible for his actions. 

Then-District Attorney Mike Eubanks wasn't buying the cock-and-bull story, and he was quoted - during Starrett's death penalty trial - in the book.  

"This is more of the psychological mumbo jumbo and pandering to criminals who commit violent acts and then want to have them excused by modern day witchcraft...this is a ruse and subterfuge to avoid prosecution...another chapter in the drama of a defendant who wants to avoid being punished for his acts." 

Starrett, giving the performance of his life, went on a hunger strike and had to be carried in and out of the courtroom in a wheelchair. 

Neither Eubanks nor Dr. Kuglar bought the act, but presiding Judge Franklin Pierce sure did. The late judge, who was becoming more than a bit eccentric in old age, even stated in open court it was " obvious the man is crazy", a remark that almost sent the DA into a conniption fit.  

While the State of Georgia had to fight over issues of Starrett's sanity, the state of South Carolina went forward with convictions on kidnapping and burglary charges. For those crimes, he was certified mentally ill but responsible for his crimes. He received the life sentences that he is currently serving. 

The murder of victim Jeannie McCrea occurred in Georgia. That was the only crime he committed that carried the death penalty. 

In 1992, new District Attorney Danny Craig, weary of the insanity defense, opted for a plea. 

"Starrett fit the profile of a serial killer,” he said. “Before the State of Georgia took custody of him (again) to try him for murder, he had already been adjudicated mentally ill in South Carolina. Under those circumstances, the likelihood of obtaining and carrying out a death sentence was minimal, at best. In light of the South Carolina judgment on the issue of mental illness and our belief that a jury would have grave difficulty reaching a unanimous decision on death, we agreed to allow the defendant to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. He was Georgia's first life without parole sentence, entered on May 3, 1993, two days after Governor Miller signed the bill into law."  

Craig never bought the mental illness claim either, but the practicality of the plea was obvious. 

Danny Starrett obviously wanted to get out of jail, hence the ill-fated escape attempt, but he seems to be doing well there. According to sources close to his family, Starrett has been romancing women via the internet and mail for decades, and some misguided souls have actually bought his act. There are indications that such relationships, as well as the possibility of assistance from these sad women - prompted his 2006 escape attempt.  

Whatever the incapacitating mental illness that came over him in the 1980s must have been miraculously cured. 

That, or both he and his well-paid defense team were lying.  

It doesn’t take much detective work to determine which was the case.  

Somewhere in the great beyond, Jeannie McCrea still seeks justice and, in that same heavenly space, Dr. Kuglar is accepting apologies from Judge Pierce.  

Danny Starrett won’t see any of them where he is going. Dr. Kuglar despised the concept of life in prison because he had seen, up close, exactly the type of life many of the most heinous killers built for themselves. It is filled with TV, movies, games, exercise in the sunshine, and personal relationships – often intimate - with the other prisoners. The last disciplinary action noted in Starrett’s prison file was in 2017. He was caught in possession of a cell phone.  

I am not sure what question is more troublesome - how he managed to get a cell phone in a maximum security prison, or who was expecting his calls?  

To the families of Bryan Kohberger’s victims, we offer our sympathy and stand with you in fury. Life without parole is not enough. 

Here's hoping his stay in prison will not be nearly as long, or enjoyable, as the continuing life sentence of Richard Daniel Starrett.