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Landing at Jeffco Airport surprises some in media

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 25, 2006 at midnight

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BOULDER - The transfer of John Mark Karr from Los Angeles to the Boulder County Jail, via Jefferson County Airport, was pulled off without a hitch, but the nation's media weren't amused.

Word had come down Wednesday that Karr, arrested in the 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, would land in a King Air aircraft at Boulder Municipal Airport, just across the street from the jail. According to officials, the flight plan stipulated Boulder.

By 4:30 p.m., two dozen news outlets were at the Boulder airport, four of them sporting vans with 30-foot masts for transponders and satellite dishes.

Then the whispers began - he might be landing at Jefferson County Airport 10 miles away.

The larger news outlets had people at both airports, just to be sure, but the smaller ones had to make their choice - and many of them chose wrongly.

So when it became apparent that the King Air had landed at Jefferson County Airport, there was a disgruntled scramble to get to the Boulder County Jail in time to meet Karr's SUV caravan.

First came a white Chevy Suburban, then the black Chevy Suburban carrying Karr in the back, seated next to a sheriff's official. Trailing was another white Chevy Suburban.

It was over in a flash.

The black Suburban turned into the jail's intake garage, it's shaded windows obstructing the view of 40 cameras, and the garage door quickly shut.

When Sheriff Joe Pelle talked to the press, some of the first questions were about the switch in airports. Was it a ruse to fool the media? Or were there other reasons.

Pelle said it was important to have two options in case of bad weather and for safety. He said the decision was the pilot's, who decided in-flight that the longer runway at Jefferson County would be safer.

The questions persisted about whether Pelle was sure the switch wasn't to avoid the media crush.

Pelle, happy with the seemingly flawless transfer, replied: "You guys were everywhere, at both airports. We weren't worried about dodging you. We were just worried about getting him here safe."