Mark Sievers trial: Jury selection continues: Day 3

Another long day of jury selection began Thursday morning, continuing to prove the issue of potential jurors being familiar with the case.

Mark Sievers back in the court room for day 3 of jury selection. 100 jurors are downstairs. 50 will be brought up for questioning first. Judge Kyle asked if Sievers was feeling better this morning after getting sick yesterday @winknews #Sieverstrial pic.twitter.com/DLROixwt7C

— Morgan Rynor (@Morgan_Rynor) November 14, 2019

A group of 100 potential jurors was brought in and 50 of them were first taken to the courtroom for questioning.

Early on, one potential juror said sitting in the courtroom was “stressing her out” because she knew what the trial was about, which seems to be the ongoing issue for the court.

Judge Bruce Kyle said about two hours into today’s selection that he expects to have a finalized jury by next Wednesday, Nov. 20.

Of this morning’s group of 51 potential jurors, 24 were sent home around 11:20 a.m. due to scheduling conflicts, medical issues, etc.

About 11 of the remaining 27 in the group said they’d heard of Mark Sievers. One woman said she was a former patient of Dr. Teresa Sievers. She was promptly sent home.

As of around 12:50 p.m., the court adjourned for lunch and potential jurors will return by 1:45 p.m.

A status hearing for Jimmy Rodgers was held at 1:30 p.m. Judge Kyle is asking to move his sentencing back to a date in December. As of now, the sentencing is scheduled for next week.

Jimmy Rodgers is in the courtroom now. This is our first look at him since a jury convicted him of second degree murder in death of Teresa #Sievers @winknews pic.twitter.com/axeUZBblq0

— Brooke Shafer (@BrookeShaferTV) November 14, 2019

At this rate, jury selection for Mark Sievers’ trial will still be going on at that time and the holidays are approaching.

Before anything is decided, the state has asked to check with the Teresa Sievers’ family, since they were in town when the initial sentencing date was set.

After several phone calls, it appears that the Teresa Sievers’ family had already purchased tickets to come down for Rodgers’ sentencing on Monday.

His sentencing date will not change and is still set to happen on Nov. 18.

Shortly after, jury selection for Mark Sievers’ trial continued.

Judge Kyle said they are on the “lower end of 60” people in the potential juror pool now. He says he wants to get a few more before beginning death penalty questions.

He suggested a “lightning round” with 28 people to add a few more to the pool.

Court had made it through this round by about 4:20 p.m. and has moved on to the next phase of questioning.

The roughly 60 people left will come in one at a time and answer questions about the death penalty, which is a possibility in this trial.

This process will likely take a while, possibly days.