Jury pool in Golsby trial to return Monday with 51
The pool of potential jurors for the Brian L. Golsby trial stands at 51, after prosecution and defense attorneys spent three and a half days eliminating those who were considered too influenced by pretrial publicity or too inflexible in their views on the death penalty.
The group will return to Franklin County Common Pleas Court Monday morning, as the attorneys work to seat 12 jurors and as many as six alternates to hear the case. Golsby is accused of the February 2017 kidnapping, rape and murder of Ohio State University student Reagan Tokes.
Golsby, 30, is accused of kidnapping Tokes, 21, at gunpoint as she walked to her car after her shift at a Short North restaurant. Her body was found the following afternoon near the entrance to Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City. She had been raped and shot twice in the head, investigators said, after being forced to withdraw $60 from an ATM.
Judge Mark Serrott said he expects the final phase of jury selection to wrap up by Monday afternoon, when opening statements would be presented.
The court began with 167 potential jurors on Feb. 26, and a goal of finding at least 50 who were qualified to hear the case.
Of the 84 people interviewed, 10 were eliminated because of their views on the death penalty. Eight were two strongly anti-death penalty and two were too strongly prodeath penalty.