Trial underway in official’s death
Jury selection begins in trial of man accused of killing William Chamberlain
Nearly 18 months after longtime city official William Chamberlain was killed near his Wynantskill home, jury selection began Monday in the trial of the man accused in the deadly stabbing.
A total of 125 potential jurors were brought in to Rensselaer County Court on Monday, from which 12 jurors and two to four alternates were to be chosen to decide the fate of Joseph N. Vandenburgh, 29, a parolee whom authorities say attacked Chamberlain late at night on Dec. 17, 2015. Jury selection will resume Tuesday morning.
Police said Chamberlain, 56, was attacked as he walked in the neighborhood near his home on Powell Street between 10 and 10:30 p.m., shortly after a meeting of the Troy City Council. Chamberlain was found by his wife after their dog returned home on his own after the attack.
Vandenburgh was picked up by police on a parole warrant the next day and returned to prison. He was indicted by a Rensselaer County grand jury in July 2016 on charges of seconddegree murder and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Vandenburgh sat in the main courtroom of the Rensselaer County Courthouse on Monday with his attorney, Danielle Neroni-Reilly of Albany, as Neroni-Reilly and Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove, who is prosecuting the case personally, considered a pool of 125 potential jurors. Clad in a dark suit with no tie and sporting a shaved head and full beard, Vandenburgh rose and meekly waved to the jury pool after he and his attorney were introduced by Rensselaer County Court Judge Debra Young, who will preside over the trial.
According to state prison records, Vandenburgh served more than seven years of a nine-year sentence for first-degree burglary in a 2005 North Greenbush break-in.
He was released on parole in December 2014 and was to remain under post-release supervision until December 2019.
Authorities have not said what they believe motivated Vandenburgh to kill Chamberlain, a city employee for three decades and its director of operations since 2004.
Vandenburgh was reportedly living with his mother at the time of the homicide in a home on Curtis Road, about a half-mile from where Chamberlain’s body was found.
Once jury selection is completed, Young said in court Monday she expects the trial to last about two weeks. If convicted, Vandenburgh faces as much as 20 years to life in prison on the murder count and as much as seven years behind bars for the weapon charge.