Kansas ordered to pay settlement to estate of Pete Coones, wrongly convicted of murder
A Shawnee County district judge on Wednesday approved compensation of $826,301 to the estate of Olin L. “Pete” Coones, who spent 12 years in prison before he was exonerated of a murder conviction in Kansas City, Kansas, according to the Kansas Attorney General’s office.
The compensation was part of a settlement in a lawsuit filed in November by Coones, who died from cancer on Feb. 21, 108 days after being released from prison. His lawyers say the cancer went undiagnosed during his wrongful incarceration. He was 64.
Coones was 50 when he was charged with first-degree murder in the April 2008 fatal shooting that took the lives of Carl Schroll, 64, and his wife, Kathleen Schroll, 45, in their Kansas City, Kansas, home.
After two trials, Coones was convicted of killing Kathleen, but not Carl, based in part on the word of an unreliable jailhouse informant who had a history that included at least 15 crimes of dishonesty, such as theft and burglary.
Coones was exonerated in November and freed after his attorneys revealed the shooting was more likely a murder-suicide carried out by Kathleen. His estate continued his claim under the Kansas’ mistaken-conviction statute.
In the agreed upon order approved by Judge Teresa L. Watson, Coones also was granted a Certificate of Innocence and records of his conviction and arrest were ordered expunged.
Payment of the judgment is subject to review by the state finance council. Attorney General Derek Schmidt plans to formally ask the council to review the matter at its next meeting, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office.
Coones’ lawsuit is the fifth filed under the states’ wrongful conviction statute to be resolved, according to the attorney general’s office.
Since December 2018, 11 people have filed lawsuits under the statue. Five cases remain in litigation. In one, a district court ruled that no payment was owed.
Copies of the orders in Coones’ wrongful conviction case can be found here.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 1:20 PM.
