Jury selection underway in triple-murder case
Jury selection began Monday in the case against Grant Amato, the Chuluota man accused of killing his family in their rural Seminole County home six months ago.
Amato, 30, faces three counts of first-degree murder in the killings of his parents, Chad and Margaret Amato, and brother Cody Amato. Authorities say an argument about Grant Amato’s continued relationship with an online webcam model, for whom he had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from his family, led to the killings.
He faces the death penalty if convicted.
The process began as Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler read the indictment against Amato out loud with 100 potential jurors seated in a courtroom.
Recksiedler estimated jury selection could take the rest of this week, with the actual trial taking an additional week. If Amato is convicted, the second phase of the trial — when jurors would determine whether they would recommend the death penalty — would begin Aug. 12.
She then asked the potential jurors to stand if they had scheduling conflicts or had heard anything about the case. About 40 potential jurors, just less than half of those in the courtroom, stood up indicating they had previously heard about details in the case.
Several potential jurors said they had heard about the case in the news media. Many said they would be able to set aside any bias or preconceived notions to judge the case impartially. Some, however, said they could not.
“The Sentinel had a twopage spread about it yesterday,” one juror said before reciting nearly verbatim the facts of the case. That juror also said there would be issues finding boarding for his three, 80-pound pit bulls, especially since jurors are only given a stipend of $15 per day. That juror was dismissed.
Another juror was dismissed after saying Amato “killed his family.”
Other jurors mentioned feeling a personal connection to the
case, either because they had experienced recent deaths in the family or were survivors of domestic violence.
One woman said the case might “emotionally trigger” her because she experienced three recent deaths in her family. The juror then burst into tears. She was dismissed.
Other jurors who indicated they read about the case in the news were kept in the juror pool after saying they could set aside their personal feelings.
Amato’s lawyers sought in pre-trial motions to sequester the jury, and dismiss evidence gathered from inside the home and through Amato’s interview with detectives. Recksiedler denied those requests.
Last week, his lawyers filed two more motions to suppress: one concerning statements made by Sheriff ’s Office investigators EvaMarie Multari and Daniel Anderson during a recorded interview with Amato, which his lawyers claim have been proven false by evidence; and another challenging prosecutors’ plan to mention a gun theft reported by Blake Turpin, a mutual friend of Grant and Cody Amato.
Turpin called Orange County deputies June 11 to report he discovered his 9 mm Magnum Research Baby Eagle handgun missing from his closet.
Turpin told deputies he last used his gun last year. He said he had a group of friends over in January 2019, around the time of the killings, but can’t say for sure whether it went missing then. Authorities have not yet found the gun used in the killings.
“Without any evidence that the defendant perpetrated this theft, there is no probative value connected to the theft of Mr. Turpin’s pistol in the instant case,” Shapiro wrote. “… This alleged theft is simply too remote of an event to be relevant in the instant case.”
Recksiedler has not ruled on those two motions.
Amato claimed innocence in an interview with detectives and in emails he sent from the Seminole County jail. His lawyer, Jeff Dowdy, has said he’s seen no physical evidence tying Amato to the killings.