LAKEPORT — The jury selection process begins today in the case of former San Francisco resident Renato Hughes, now 23, after nearly two years of delays in the Lake Count Superior Court system. Hughes is accused in the shooting deaths of his companions Christian Foster, 22, of San Francisco, and Rashad Williams, 21, of Pittsburg in an alleged robbery gone bad at the Clearlake Park home of Shannon Edmonds on Dec. 2, 2005.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense alleges that Hughes wielded the Browning automatic pistol that killed his companions. Although Edmonds reportedly pulled the trigger, Hughes is being held for their deaths under a clause in the law that holds co-perpetrators responsible in the commission of a felonious act if the act is likely to provoke lethal resistance. Lake County District Attorney Jon Hopkins said he was preparing Monday afternoon for for today”s jury selection, which begins at 8:15 a.m. in Department 3 of the Lakeport courthouse before visiting judge William A. McKinstry, a retired judge of the Alameda County Superior Court. Hopkins said he expects the jury selection to take a minimum of two weeks.
“We hope to have the jury selected by November 2, in which case the evidence would begin November 6,” Hopkins said. “The goal is to get four panels of jurors in the next two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, so that the following week we have enough jurors that can be questioned,” Hopkins said. The court will decide this week which potential jurors can be excused for hardship claims, Hopkins said. While he wouldn”t reveal his strategy for selecting jurors, Hopkins said, “We”re using a questionnaire, and we have time set aside to ask people of their knowledge of the case from the publicity.”
Lake County Superior Court Judge Arthur H. Mann denied defense attorney Stuart Hanlon”s motion for a change of venue in a March ruling after Hanlon put forth an argument that Lake County is not the ideal racial climate for his black client to receive a fair trial. Hanlon cited a black population in the county that makes up less than two percent of its total population. His request that the California Supreme Court review the case to determine whether the change of venue should have been granted was denied in May.
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