Stafford trial begins screening process for potential jurors
Jury selection in the murder trial of eight-year-old Victoria (Tori) Stafford started on Monday with 63 potential jurors asked to return this week for further screening.
The process, which was expected to last until Friday, was set to screen more than 1,300 people summoned for jury duty for this trial and others beginning shortly. All live in the London, Ont., area. The accused, Michael Rafferty, sat quietly throughout the proceedings in the prisoner’s box, dressed in a grey suit and a purple tie as jurors were brought into the courtroom to be questioned by the judge.
Rafferty, 31, is charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm, kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of the Grade 3 student nearly three years ago.
Tori was last seen on her way home from school on April 8, 2009, in Woodstock, Ont., southwest of Toronto. Her remains were found three months later, more than two hours away in a rural field in Mount Forest, Ont., near Guelph.
Of 224 potential jurors seen monday, Ontario Justice Thomas Heeney excused all except 63. Some of the potential jurors told Heeney they had young children of their own and were too emotionally invested in this case to be fair if chosen.
Outside the courthouse, Rafferty’s lawyer, Dirk Derstine says the upcoming evidence in the case may be a surprise to the public.
“I expect that the evidence to be called will be different than what everybody is perhaps expecting,” he told reporters.
He wouldn’t comment on how his client was doing but said: “You can only imagine if you were facing a case of this nature and of this magnitude and you were coming up to your trial date how you would feel and he is no different than everybody else.”
None of Tori’s family members was present in the courtroom.
In april 2010, terri-lynne mcclintic pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death. Mcclintic, 21, was sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole for 25 years.
Jury screening continues today.