Consider this report about John Mark Karr's appearance in an LA court:

John Mark Karr "marches to the beat of a different drummer" and is anxious to travel to Colorado to face allegations against him in the slaying of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, a defence lawyer said.

"He wants to go now," said [lawyer Jamie] Harmon. "Mr. Karr has been portrayed by the media as of late as being mentally unstable, attention-seeking, unwell, mentally unwell. And he is none of those things. He is anxious to have an opportunity to address the allegations against him, to be portrayed in a more accurate and complete way."

OK, this struck me as a bit odd. He already made statements taking some sort of responsibility for JonBenet's murder. So what does he mean by addressing the allegations? Allegations? An allegation is made by someone else. No one else pointed at Karr and alleged that he killed JonBenet, forcing Karr to respond. Karr himself made the statements.

Notice that I'm avoiding the use of the word "confession". I don't think he has signed a formal confession.

Harmon alludes to the idea that Karr wants his day in court in order to get the story straight. Maybe, but then what about this?

Karr, who had been photographed in Thailand and on his trip to the United States wearing civilian clothes, appeared in court wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, his hands cuffed to a chain around his waist.

His lawyer for the hearing, Deputy Public Defender Haydeh Takasugi, said Karr was concerned about appearing in jail attire rather than civilian clothes.

"It's going to taint any potential jury pool out there," Takasugi said. "He was upset at that."

Jury pool? Why does he need to worry about a jury pool? He's planning to plead guilty, right?

Everything is pointing to this case taking a turn in an unexpected direction. The article closes on that note:

In addition to first-degree murder, the counts against Karr in a sealed probable-cause arrest warrant include felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault on a child.

Perhaps the most unexpected was the possible felony murder claim, which means prosecutors are either accusing Karr of killing JonBenet during the course of a sexual assault or kidnapping, or alleging he was present while someone else killed the girl.

Felony murder carries the same penalties as first-degree murder: either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.

"It's a perfect insurance policy for the prosecution in Colorado," said former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman. "Even if a jury were to somehow buy that this was an accident, any death during the commission of a kidnapping or sexual assault is first-degree murder regardless."

Felony murder is often described as allowing "vicarious liability" and could relate to Karr's statement to reporters in Thailand on Sunday that he was present when JonBenet died and that her death was an accident. He did not specifically say he killed her.

Is that it? Is Karr going to say someone else did it? Or is he going to plead not guilty, rescind all his statements, and dare the prosecutors to try to convict him, pointing out that he never actually admitted to killing JonBenet?

One thing for certain -- Karr is not going back to Thailand and doesn't have to worry about Thai prisons.