Jamie Seeger
Curtis Marco Wilson
Lawrence Vickers
Marrio Williams
Attorneys pick jury for final Seeger murder trial
By Buster Thompson
The Citrus County Chronicle
Curtis Marco Wilson, the last of Jamie Seeger’s three accused murderers to answer to his charges, is ready to stand trial this week.
Attorneys and Citrus County Circuit Court Judge Richard “Ric” Howard worked Monday to assemble a 12-person jury to preside over Wilson’s trial for the July 2012 shooting death of Seeger, a former Citrus County Sheriff's Office informant.
Wilson, 34, of St. Petersburg, was one of three men charged in connection with the first-degree murder of Seeger, whose 27-year-old body was found slumped and lifeless in the driver's seat of a Chrysler Crossfire July 25, 2012, near the Crystal River-area intersection of West Cyrus Street and North Reynolds Avenue.
Following a lengthy investigation, authorities in December 2012 apprehended Wilson, 50-year-old Lawrence James Vickers of Crystal River and 32-year-old Marrio Demetric Williams of Dunnellon.
Investigators allege Vickers and Williams, who were also accused earlier in 2012 of selling cocaine to Seeger while she was undercover, paid Wilson to kill Seeger before she could testify against them in court, according to prior reports.
During the late hours of July 24, 2012, Williams drove to St. Petersburg to pick up Wilson and drive back to Crystal River to murder Seeger during the early hours of July 25.
Following the shooting, Williams and Wilson allegedly drove back to St. Petersburg and threw the murder weapon off the Howard Frankland Bridge. Dive teams later recovered the firearm.
Expected to last at least week, Wilson's trial could see 190 witnesses testifying, according to attorneys.
Prosecutors Pete Magrino and Rich Buxman and Wilson’s defense team of Candace Hawthorne and Brenda H. Smith on Monday surveyed a panel of 50 prospective jurors, with questions focused on circumstances relating to Seeger's murder.
Wilson’s case will be the first death-penalty case in Citrus County in which jurors, not Howard, will impose a death sentence if Wilson is found guilty of first-degree murder.
Florida lawmakers resisted and changed the state’s death-penalty sentencing procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2016 ruled in Hurst vs. Florida to strike down the state’s prior method, which then allowed judges to impose death.
If Wilson is convicted following his trial, all 12 presiding jurors must then unanimously decide at a separate hearing if Wilson is eligible for death, if at least one aggravating circumstance is proved in Wilson’s alleged offense is present.
“That verdict comes from the jury, no longer from the judge,” Howard told the jury panel.
Magrino and Hawthorne said they understood the new post-conviction procedures for capital cases.
A few prospective jurors, however, told Howard they would be uncomfortable in sentencing someone to death.
“I don’t believe in the death penalty,” a man on the panel said.
Jurors found Williams guilty as charged in November. Williams, who was not eligible for death due to his intellectual disabilities, was sentenced to life in prison.
Vickers on Aug. 14 pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Attorneys on Sept. 22 will schedule Vickers’ sentencing date, when Howard will impose a sentence no more than 30 years.
Vickers and Williams are both listed as witnesses in Wilson's trial, Magrino said.
http://www.chronicleonline.com/news/...50bf821c2.html
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