Selection for jury underway in murder trial

Jury selection resumed Wednesday morning in the murder trial of Nicholas Colletta, accused of shooting and killing Ivan Solis in Begonias Lane Park in July last year.

After months of postponements in the case, the process of selecting jurors for the trial began Tuesday in San Fernando Superior Court.

Colletta was arrested by deputies of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station on July 19, 2017, on suspicion of killing Solis on July 11, 2017.

His girlfriend at the time, Jaqueline Arreola, 25, was initially arrested on suspicion of murder in the same killing but pleaded guilty in March to one count of being an accessory after the fact, having knowledge of the crime.

Arreola is scheduled to be sentenced on

Dec. 10.

Both she and Colletta are members of the Brown Familia gang who began dating each other six weeks prior to the shooting, according to testimony she gave in court in April.

Her nickname was “Clowdy”; his was

“Sicko.”

Arreola told a sparse courtroom in April that she saw Colletta pull out a gray gun and shoot Solis.

Prosecutors allege in their felony complaint that Solis had been shot for “the benefit of, at the direction of, and in association with, a criminal street gang.”