Alexis Reich

Alexis Valoran Reich (born December 11, 1964) is an American widely known as John Mark Karr who in 2006 falsely confessed to the unsolved murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey. He has, on other occasions, faced a number of other criminal charges.

Childhood
Reich was born John Mark Karr in Conyers, Georgia. He spent his early childhood in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents, Wexford Karr and Patricia Elaine Adcock, had married on August 21, 1958, at the respective ages of 37 and 18. Wexford filed for divorce in 1973, saying the marriage was "irretrievably broken," and that Karr and his older brother, Michael, were in his custody. Soon after, Wexford Karr, then 52 years old, married 29-year-old Susan Simpson, his neighbor in the same apartment complex. His marriage with Simpson ended in divorce six months later.

A family friend, George McCrary, has said that Karr's mother believed his child was possessed by demons. Karr's mother allegedly built a pyre of kindling around his infant child, and then attempted to burn his alive. Adcock was committed to the Central State Hospital, a mental hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, and later lived in a group home, according to his stepmother Shirley Adcock.

Karr moved to Alabama to live with his grandparents when he was about 12 years old. He grew up in Hamilton and graduated from Hamilton High School in 1983. Karr returned to live in Atlanta at least twice: once to attend one semester at Riverwood High School in Sandy Springs from January to May 1981, and again some years after graduating from high school.

Marriages
In 1984, Karr married a 13-year-old girl. Karr told his to lie about his age, and took her out of Alabama, where they both lived, to marry her. They lived together as a couple in Hamilton after their wedding, with Karr "abusing her every way there was", according to her mother. Court records show that, in 1985, a 14-year-old girl sought an annulment of what the records call a "ceremonial marriage," saying she had feared for her life when she agreed to marry in 1984. Karr admitted to the court that the girl was a minor, but disputed that she had been 13. The marriage was annulled in 1985. The girl later remarried and now bears a different surname.

On May 19, 1989, in Alabama, Karr then married a pregnant 16 year-old woman. She was carrying twin daughters who were delivered via a home birth on September 1, 1989. The girls died later that day. The couple went on to have three boys in close succession in 1990, 1992 and 1993. The couple divorced in 2001 following Karr's arrest for five misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography in Petaluma, California. In the divorce petition, Karr's wife wrote that there was never physical violence towards her, but that Karr was "very controlling" of her. A restraining order was granted. Karr's wife claimed he had purposely set out to get her pregnant, telling her the pregnancy would allow them to skirt the law and get married, according to statements in divorce records. In 2007, Karr became engaged to a 23-year-old woman who had a three-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. She left Karr in September 2008.

Career
Karr had been working as a substitute teacher in Petaluma, but Bob Raines, the Superintendent-Principal at Wilson Elementary School in Petaluma said he was an ineffective substitute teacher: "He just seemed like somebody who thought he wanted to be a teacher... After a day, I could see it just wasn't for him." He worked from December 2000 through June 2001 in as many as 14 schools in the Petaluma, Old Adobe, Liberty and Wilmar elementary districts. Karr's last paycheck for teaching work in Petaluma was issued in April 2001, the same month that Karr made his first court appearance for the aforementioned pornography charges. When he failed to show up for a readiness conference in December 2001, a judge issued a warrant for Karr's arrest, which was still outstanding as of August 2006.

In March 1996, Karr registered the domain Powerwurks.com and used it as a cover, claiming on Usenet to be "a world wide support organization for kids, teens and college students." As well as seeking troubled or depressed children, he also solicited discussion on sex.

Karr also operated a day care center in northwest Alabama. The Marion County Department of Human Resources issued a license for Karr to begin operating a day care out of his home in June 1997. Under the license, Karr was allowed to care for as many as six children at a time, ranging in age up to 14 years old.

2001 arrest
On April 13, 2001, he was arrested for possession of computerized child pornography. He pled not guilty four days later. On October 15, 2001, after a series of court hearings, he was released, but ordered to report to a probation officer. The court records in the case were sealed. In December 2001, Karr failed to appear and a bench warrant was issued by a Sonoma County Superior Court Judge. Karr then went on the run, living in Asia, Europe and Central America, until his arrest in Thailand.

JonBenét Ramsey confession
In August 2006, Reich confessed to the murder of child beauty pageant queen JonBenét Patricia Ramsey while being held on child pornography charges from Sonoma County, California. Authorities tracked him down using the Internet after he sent e-mails regarding the Ramsey case to Michael Tracey, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Once apprehended in Bangkok, Thailand, he confessed to being with Ramsey when she died, stating that the death was an accident. When asked if he was innocent, the response was "No." During his detention in Thailand, officials kept him on a 24-hour suicide watch.

Reich was detained in Thailand because his visa had been revoked by request of Boulder County, Colorado, but he was released to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to ensure he returned to the U.S. He was not legally arrested until August 20, 2006, after the airliner touched down at Los Angeles International Airport. Citing Sheriff's Department policy regarding inmates who are "accused child molesters", deputies stated that Reich was held in isolation while he was at the facility. Two days later Reich waived extradition during a three-minute hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court, clearing the way for his transfer to Boulder. According to CNN, on the way back to the correctional facility after the extradition hearing, he said to an officer, "Everybody says I couldn't know my way around the house, but I got in the house around 5 o'clock ... and I stayed there all night." Although Reich had been represented by public defenders in Los Angeles and Boulder, two California-based attorneys, Patience van Zandt (who worked with him on the 2001 child pornography case) and Jamie Harmon served him in an advisory capacity. In Boulder, he was assisted by Boulder County Public Defender Seth Temin, despite the fact that three dozen lawyers had offered to represent him (for free in many cases) against the charges.

Reich's DNA did not match that found on the body. Later that same month, prosecutors announced that no charges would be filed for the murder of Ramsey.

Extradition to California
Following his release on August 28, Reich was quickly rearrested and the Sonoma County DA's Office announced their intent to have Reich extradited from Boulder to face the five misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography that had been filed five years earlier. On September 12, 2006, Reich arrived in Santa Rosa, where he stood by his original plea of not guilty. On September 19, 2006, prosecutors offered Reich a plea bargain in which he would plead guilty to two of the five counts, in exchange for dismissal of the remaining three counts and a sentence of time served in jail and three years probation. He would also be required to register in California as a sex offender. He turned down the plea bargain offer in the case. On September 25, 2006, however, Judge Cerena Wong agreed to consider a defense motion to dismiss all charges, in light of the Sonoma County sheriff's department's alleged 2002 junking of a computer believed to contain the pornographic images that are the basis of the prosecution's case. The prosecution maintained that it printed the photos from his computer before it disappeared; it is these printed copies that the prosecution planned to introduce as evidence if the case went to trial.

Charges dropped
On October 5, 2006, all of the child pornography charges against him were dropped after investigators lost the computer seized in April 2001. The Deputy District Attorney Mary Maxiemer was put up on the stand and questioned by defense attorneys. It was determined he withheld information from the Court and he was appointed an attorney. The case was immediately dismissed by the court. He was immediately released from jail per orders from Judge Rene Chouteau.

The next day a limousine carrying Reich and two producers from ABC's Good Morning America was stopped and questioned by police but they determined that no crime was committed. He was apparently giving the producers a tour of the neighborhood where he used to live and work when he suddenly exited the limo and approached the school. According to Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, his "behavior gave us serious pause, and ABC decided not to proceed with the interview." He was the guest on CNN's Larry King Live on October 16, 2006.

2007–2008
Karr was again arrested and jailed July 6, 2007 after being involved in a domestic argument at his father's house in suburban Atlanta. The argument was between Karr, Karr's girlfriend and Karr's father. Karr was charged with battery and obstruction. Karr later was released.

Reich obtained a legal name change to Alexis Valoran Reich in December 2008 in Washington State.