Jury seated after judge demands lawyers make their selections in Curtis Reeves trial
DADE CITY, Fla. - After four days of methodical and exhaustive selection, a jury has finally been seated in the trial of Curtis Reeves for the 2014 shooting of Chad Oulson in a Wesley Chapel movie theater.
The 10 jurors were selected at 6:30 Thursday night, four days after 80 potential jurors showed up to the Robert D. Sumner Judicial Center in Dade City.
Seating a jury shifted to a high gear Thursday afternoon after Pasco-Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge Susan Gardner Barthle showed her aggravation and put her foot down.
She demanded that lawyers on both sides pick the jury before Friday, allowing everyone three days before opening statements begin Monday morning.
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"We are going to finish. We are not going home at 5 o’clock and starting up tomorrow morning with our selections. These people are gonna know this afternoon, by the time we get done here, whether they’re coming back tomorrow as jurors or whether they’re done. So we are getting a jury today. That's it," Barthle said.
The jury consists of four men and two women.
Florida 6th Circuit Court judge Susan Gardner Barthle (R) presides over the first day of jury selection for former Tampa Police Captain Curtis Reeves (L) for his second-degree murder trial on Monday, Feb 7, 2022, at the Robert D. Sumner Judicial Cent
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Four alternates were also selected: three women and one man.
The makeup of the jury is primarily white, with one Hispanic person, and ranges in ages from late 30s to early 60s.
Attorneys interview potential jurors in Curtis Reeves trial
A potential juror questioned Wednesday was only 15 years old when it happened and he heard about it from his parents, "Did you know there was a shooting at the movie theater! It’s crazy," he recalled his mother saying. Now At 22 he may end up on the jury deciding the fate of 79-year-old Curtis Reeves," You never think something like this would happen in your backyard until it does," he said.