Why would he kill?

Oct. 13, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER - While investigators were able to piece together evidence showing how a mother and her baby died, one question was left hanging, even after their murderer's conviction almost a year later.

&#8220I have to ask, because I promised somebody,” Richard Payne, assistant district attorney, said to Christopher Kevan, the murder defendant in the witness stand. &#8220They need to know why. Why did you kill Ashton and Brandie Burns?”

Kevan told his father and his uncle he killed Brandie, 26, and Ashton, their 7-week-old son, the day after he did it. He told investigators he killed them, and confessed it twice in open court. He told his uncle how he used his weight and his hands to choke the life out of his girlfriend, then held baby Ashton and squeezed the life from his 10-pound body, too.

But the answers Kevan has given to why are vague and contradictory: He felt tricked and trapped by Brandie's pregnancy. He didn't want to be a father. Brandie was going to take Ashton and move to Georgia, taking &#8220everything,” and leaving him alone. She pushed. They fought. He snapped.

When Payne confronted Kevan in open court, the man who would be convicted of murder the next day whispered nonsensical, taunting answers.

&#8220What?” he whispered.

&#8220Why?” said Payne.

&#8220Why do I have a U-joint in my truck?” Kevan responded in an undertone.

There may never be a rational answer for irrational action. But Jonathan Kellerman, a child clinical psychologist and author in California, describes a particular type of personality - a psychopath - in his book &#8220Savage Spawn, Reflections on Violent Children.”

Kellerman wrote the book in 1999 in response to an increased number of young killers in the country. But his knowledge could shed light on the tragic and inexplicable killings of Oct. 25.

All the psychopathic boys Kellerman encountered in his practice shared the same traits: emotional flatness, lack of conscience, grating bravado, inflated self-esteem, ambitious pleasure seeking. They disparaged those who loved them.

&#8220They commit the outrages that we mislabel as ‘senseless crimes,'” Kellerman wrote. &#8220We're wrong about that, just as we are about most of the assumptions we make about psychopathic criminals. What turns them on is the kick, the high, the slaking of impulse - pure sensation. Power, dominance, subjugation of the rest of us.”

Psychopathic tendencies show up in children as young as 3 years old, according to Kellerman. His A-list of psychopaths includes Ted Bundy, Vlad the Impaler, Al Capone, Pol Pot, Carlos the Jackal, Jack the Ripper, Pablo Escobar, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy.

The smartest and most privileged psychopaths know violence is likely to get them in trouble, and they manage to use safer means of exploitation, Kellerman said in the book. But &#8220garden-variety psychopaths, lacking the brains, luck, will, and attention span for criminal celebrity … go about their business like any other bunch of working stiffs,” he said.

Kevan's notable lack of emotional response to his two murders, his superficial wounds from what he called a suicide attempt and, once the trial started, his sudden claims of hallucinations, incoherent ramblings and profane outbursts fit Kellerman's description of a psychopath.

&#8220Psychopathic killers are anything but crazy,” he said. &#8220Psychopaths know exactly what they're doing. If they're caught, they often try to fake madness.”

Kevan told his uncle he was sleeping well in jail. Psychopaths sleep unusually well at night, Kellerman said.

Kellerman recognizes that all the data on psychopaths come from those, like Kevan, who got caught, so the information is pulled from &#8220a biased sample of incompetents,” he said.

&#8220The best and brightest may be racking up triple-digit victim tallies no one even knows about,” he wrote.

Psychopaths remain devoid of sympathy and empathy, traits usually developed in toddlerhood, he said in the book. They view people as objects, believe rules apply only to others and are &#8220quite enthusiastic about defending themselves physically.”

A severe psychopath can be identified and segregated, he wrote.

&#8220The fact remains that once he's locked up for a long time, the rest of us will be safer,” he said. &#8220Lock up the psychopaths for as long as possible, and the streets will be safer. Keep the psychopaths away from the rest of us as completely as possible, and quality of life will soar.”

Kellerman had a possible answer for the &#8220why?” that Kevan wouldn't respond to.

&#8220They do it because they love it,” he said. &#8220They do it because they can.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com