GALVESTON — Jury selection in the capital murder trial of Kimberly Dawn Trenor is scheduled to begin today, as the mother of Baby Grace seeks an acquittal in the 2007 death of her 2-year-old girl.
Trenor is on trial for the death of Riley Ann Sawyers, who was found in a plastic box by a fisherman in Galveston Bay. Authorities accused Trenor, 20, and her boyfriend, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, 25, of killing Sawyers at their Spring home.
Judge David Garner of the 10th District Court selected a jury pool of 150 people last week, and prosecutors and Trenor’s defense attorney, Tom Sticker, will select 12 people, including two alternate jurors, to hear the case.
Sandra Guerra Thompson, a criminal law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said there is a process to selecting jurors who might be favorable to either side.
Prosecutors obviously seek those more inclined to convict, Thompson said.
“They prefer people in certain kinds of careers,” Thompson said, such as members of the military or teachers. “They want people in supervisory type positions or in other positions where they have to make hard choices.”
Older people are usually favorable to law enforcement, so the defense could look to try to see a younger crowd, Thompson said.
“The defense prefers students,” she said. “Younger people who seem like they would be kind of open to different views. If they can seat someone on the jury with a distrust of law enforcement, that would be something the defense would prefer.”
Selecting mothers to the jury could be advantageous to the prosecution, Thompson said.
“Most mothers will be protective of children, loving and would do anything in their power to make sure their children aren’t harmed,” Thompson said. “When there’s evidence to the contrary, mothers might be the most upset about that.”
It’s illegal, however, to strike jurors based on race or gender, Thompson said.
Testimony is scheduled for Tuesday. Neal Davis III, Zeigler’s attorney, said his client’s trial hasn’t been set.
