VERO BEACH — By the end of the day Friday, 12 jurors and three alternates had been sworn in by Judge Robert L. Pegg to decide the fate of Henry Lee Jones, Jr., charged with the killing of Brian Simpson in November 2011.
The trial starts at the beginning of the week.
Because of the extensive press coverage the beach-side homicide and the victim’s family received over the past few years, defense attorneys quickly used up their peremptory strikes Friday afternoon on potential jurors whom they feared entered the courtroom with a bias against the defendant.
To seat the 12-person panel and three alternates, prosecutors and defense attorneys went up to No. 50 from a pool of 94 Indian River County residents, whom the judge called “the biggest group we’ve ever had” to be potential jurors.
The final selection consisted of six men and six women, and, of those 12, one woman was an African-American. The alternates are two women and one man.
One of the male jurors works in the maintenance department at the Indian River Sheriff’s office; another is a civil litigator, while another manages a landscape business. One of the female jurors is an English teacher, another a bookkeeper and yet another an urgent care nurse.
Of the three alternates, one is a pilot and one is a graduate student in an MBA program.
Opening arguments will begin Monday at 9 a.m.
