District Judge David Rogers ruled March 22 that three attorneys provided effective defense for Rory Foster. FOSTER KILLED Hardrick in her apartment on the east side of Iola early the morning of April 25, 2006. After bludgeoning Hardrick, he set fire to a bed where her body was laid. A second victim, Rachel Reeder, also 19 at the time, escaped and was a key prosecution witness in the case.
Foster, 32, was convicted of first-degree murder, rape and other charges here in 2008 in the death of Brianna Hardrick, then 19 and mother of Foster’s young son.
Foster, represented by Rustin Rankin, Fredonia, claimed that none of his defense counselors — David Clark and John Gillette, Chanute, or Mike Brown, Mulvane, effectively represented him. Also, he claimed international treaties had been violated, with him being a native of Jamaica and charged in Iola.
Allen County Attorney Wade Bowie, who opposed the appeal, said the case would be heard next by either the Kansas Supreme Court or Court of Appeals. He also noted an appeal by Foster of his convictions earlier was denied by the state-level courts.
While appeal of his attorney’s performance would appear to be the end of the line for Foster, incarcerated at the Kansas maximum security prison in El Dorado, Bowie said that probably wouldn’t be the case.
“He has a lot of time to think and probably will try again,” on some sort of appeal, he said.
Foster would be represented by state-appointed attorneys in whatever avenues he pursued.
In addition to murder and rape, Foster was convicted of aggravated arson, aggravated battery, aggravated kidnapping, criminal threat and aggravated sodomy.
He is serving 50 years without chance of parole for murder, as well as consecutive terms totaling 39 years and four months and another 81 months to run concurrently for the other convictions.
Foster appeal denied
