Karl Karlsen's Sentencing

Before a packed courtroom at the Seneca County Courthouse, Karl Karlsen was sentenced in December to a 15 year to life sentence for the 2008 murder of his son Levi. Sitting next to Karlsen is his lawyer, Lawrence Kasperek. Karlsen was charged with first-degree murder today in California for the 1991 death of his first wife.

(Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannerelli@syracuse.com)

Update: We just obtained the paperwork filed against Karl Karlsen in California. It's scanned in at the bottom of the story.

Calaveras County, Calif. -- Karl Karlsen, the Seneca County man who pleaded guilty in November to killing his son by dropping a truck onto his chest, could face the death penalty in California after being charged today with murdering his first wife there 23 years ago.

Karlsen has been charged with killing Christina Karlsen on New Year's Day 1991 in a fire "for financial gain."



Christina Karlsen, in an undated family photo. Submitted photo

Murder for financial gain is considered a "special circumstance" under California law that would qualify Karlsen for the death penalty if he is convicted.

Karlsen collected $200,000 of life insurance money on a policy he had bought just weeks before Christina died, huddled on the bathroom floor of the tiny house in the Sierra foothills, according to court records filed in Seneca County. The couple's three young children were in the house at the time of the fire; Karl Karlsen told investigators then he rescued them from the flames but could not save his wife.

Karlsen pleaded guilty last year to killing his and Christina's son, Levi, in 2008 by knocking a truck off a jack while Levi worked under it in Karlsen's Seneca County garage. Karlsen was sentenced in December to 15 years to life in state prison. Levi was 23 and had two young children.

Karl Karlsen bought a $700,000 life insurance policy on Levi just 17 days before Levi died, and collected the money a few months later.

Christina Karlsen was 30 when she died. Her death was officially listed as an accident, but her family members always suspected Karl Karlsen had killed her. After Karlsen was charged in 2012 with his son's murder, California investigators re-opened the case.

Karlsen told investigators in 1991 that his wife had gone to take a bath in the tiny bathroom on the afternoon of New Year's Day, and he later heard her screaming for help as the fire raged in the hallway just outside the bathroom. Christina died of smoke inhalation in a small bathroom in which. Karl Karlsen had just days before boarded up the only escape route, a small window.

Karlsen's version of events, however, was convoluted and changed in subsequent interviews. Some investigators with the California Department of Forestry kept files on Karlsen, hoping the case would someday be re-opened. One of them was retired investigator Carl Kent, who said he always hoped Karlsen would "do something stupid" that would re-open the case.

Karlsen said in a jailhouse interview with Syracuse.com in 2012 that he did not kill Christina. He said the couple had also taken out life insurance policies on their three children, ages 6, 5, and 4 at the time.

"If I was in it for the money," Karlsen said in 2012, "I could have just walked away and let my kids die."

Karlsen's case was featured in the past year on ABC's "20/20" and on NBC's "Dateline."

Here are the court papers filed today in Calaveras County

Karlsen California Complaint

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