GREAT BEND – A Texas man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 100 years in connection with the July 2018 deaths of Alfred “Sonny” Carpenter and Pauline Carpenter, both of Wichita, at the Barton County Fair, according to Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Rusty Lee Frasier, 37, of Aransas Pass, Texas, was sentenced Thursday afternoon in Barton County District Court by District Court Judge Mike Keeley. Frasier was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 50 years on each of two counts of first-degree murder. The sentences are to run consecutively.
Judge Keeley also sentenced Christine M. Tenney, 40, of La Marque, Texas, to 59 months in prison for aggravated robbery and eight months for obstructing apprehension for her role in the deaths. The sentences are to run concurrently.
Michael Fowler, Jr., 56, of Sarasota, Florida, was previously sentenced by Judge Keeley to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 100 years in connection with the Carpenters’ deaths.
Police learned that Fowler shot the Carpenters at the Barton County Fair in Great Bend. Investigators say he told police he killed the couple after receiving text messages from someone named Frank Zaitchik, a man he believed to be a member of a “carnival mafia.” Police said they later discovered the text messages were sent by Younger.
Younger, Fowler, Frasier and Tenney were arrested in Van Buren, Arkansas, on July 19 after a Tenney’s relative called local police to report she was being held against her will. The homicide investigation unfolded from there.
The cases were investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation; Great Bend Police Department; Van Buren, Arkansas Police Department; and the Crawford County, Arkansas, Sheriff’s Office.