THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220162
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 40 lines
Eleven prospective jurors have been chosen to decide the fate of Billy Joe Brown, one of two U.S. Navy SEAL trainees charged with murdering Georgia college student Jennifer L. Evans.
Although progress was slow Tuesday, Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys predicted that the selection process could be completed today. Jury selection began Monday.
``If we have as good a day (today) as we did (Tuesday) we should be able to start the case on Thursday,'' Humphreys said.
A pool of 24 people must be selected before the Commonwealth and the defense can whittle that number down to a 12-member jury with two alternates.
The process has been slow mostly because publicity about Evans' murder has been intense. Thirteen prospective jurors have been rejected, many because they have admitted they already have formed opinions about Brown's role in the case.
Such a high number of rejected jurors is unusual, said Brown's lawyer, Norfolk attorney Andrew Sacks.
Sacks, who has made a motion for a change of venue, said he still wants the trial moved out of Hampton Roads. Even if a jury can be chosen in Virginia Beach, Sacks said, that won't necessarily make the jury a representative group of people.
When so many jurors are rejected, Sacks said, ``it begins to impact on the defendant's right to a fair cross-section of the community.
``We are straining to get a jury when we don't need to do that,'' Sacks said.
Evans, a pre-med student at Atlanta's Emory University, was vacationing in Virginia Beach when she disappeared on June 19, 1995, from a bar. Her body was found eight days later in a Newport News park.
Brown and fellow SEAL trainee Dustin A. Turner were arrested and charged with murder. Each accused the other of strangling Evans in Turner's car.
Turner's trial is scheduled to start June 25.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST TRIAL by CNB