Jury selection made for Brewer murder trial
Jury selection was completed Monday afternoon and Livingston County State's Attorney Randy Yedinak is ready to present his case in the prosecution of Clifford Brewer for the murder of three people on Christmas morning in 2019.
It's been since the December 25, 2019, murders that this trial has been waiting to take place, and Monday's jury selection has now allowed for the case to take place.
The 12 members of the jury were approved before Circuit Judge Jennifer Bauknecht and the full complement of jurors reached 14 with the approval of two alternates in the afternoon session.
There were 40 people who checked in for jury duty and they were brought in for the voir dire process at 9 a.m. The vetting of the potential jurors to see who would be seated to hear the case took place with instructions provided by the judge. The potential jurors were set up in three groups with the first 12 accepted candidates coming from the first two groups. Actually, nine were from the first group.
“We anticipated it was going to take the better part of the day if not the entire day to get it done, but thankfully we got some time here to prepare for tomorrow,” Yedinak said.
The make up of the 12 jurors was eight women and four men and, after the approval of the two alternates, the number reached 10 women and four men. What that means exactly is not known.
“I don't know how many jury trials I've done, how many juries I've picked, I'm sure it does matter on some situations and some crimes, but I don't think it matters on this one,” Yedinak said of the way this jury is made up.
Bauknecht explained to the potential jurors the issues at stake and what was expected by those who would be chosen.
“Jury duty is one of the highest callings we have,” she told the jury pool members.
Bauknecht explained the nuances of what the jury will be doing and what is expected; explaining that the accused is innocent until proven guilty and that nothing should be read into what takes place during the trial, such as should the accused decide not to testify on his own behalf. There should be nothing inferred if the defendant does not testify.
Bauknecht also explained that an indictment does not mean the defendant is guilty even though charges have been brought against him. This goes to the presumption of innocence.
The witness list was read to the potential jurors in an effort to find out if these witnesses were known to those who might be hearing the case.
“Do you think you can be a fair and impartial juror,” Bauknecht asked. This was a question posed many times during the voir dire, especially by the defense team.
Yedinak followed Bauknecht's questioning of the first group of jury pool members with is own questions, mainly looking for connections that the jury pool members might have with the case, including what they know of the case.
Some said they knew of the case from when it happened, but not much since. The fact that COVID and other factors helped stretch the case out more than 2½ years has seemingly helped with taking away some of the initial understanding of the case.
Stephen Richards, lead defense attorney for Brewer, asked four basic questions in his voir dire; he was looking at suicide, experiencing depression, drug and alcohol addiction and divorce as the foundation for his questioning.
It was also asked if the potential jurors had taken biology at least in high school and what might have been retained.
When the second group was sworn to answer questions, Bauknecht went through her process, somewhat more quickly because this pool had been sitting in the audience seats and heard the first group answer questions.
Assistant State's Attorney Mike Regnier did the voir dire process for the state for the second group and assistant Joshua Richards did the same for the defense.
One point that was hit on by Bauknecht and the defense, especially, was what information, if any, did the potential jurors know coming into this proceeding. The exposure to news of this case seemed to be important in trying to understand any preconceived prejudices.
What was learned was that only a couple of the 40 potential jurors read any recent reports on this case, and not many more admitted to knowing anything about the case even when it happened in late 2019.
“I think it makes it easier for all of us,” Yedinak said of the lack of knowledge of this case. “When we're dealing with jurors who are essentially blank slates, they're coming in here hearing things for the first time. There's always going to be those conscience or unconscious biases that form based on what they've read, based on what they've seen. If they don't already have those biases that makes our jobs a lot easier.”
Jurors will receive their instructions at 9 a.m. Tuesday and the trial will begin with opening statements from both sides. Yedinak said he is anticipating maybe 10 minutes of time needed to make his statement. Richards was guessing in the neighborhood of 30-40 minutes for his statement.
“Opening statements are a roadmap of what we think the evidence will show in this case, so, essentially, our opening statement will be what our case will be,” Yedinak said. “It's a summary of where we're not going to hit every detail but it's a summary of where we're going with things.”
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Clifford Brewer murder trial tried by Randy Yedinak
