Hwa Lee
Jefferson Parish capital case dips deeply into jury pool
Prospective jurors reported to the Jefferson Parish Courthouse in Gretna by the hundreds Friday to fill out lengthy questionnaires in preparation for what has become a rarity in the parish: a capital prosecution.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin next month in the first-degree murder trial of Isaiah Doyle, 28, of Harvey, who is accused of killing convenience store clerk Hwa Lee, 26, during an armed robbery of her family's Marrero business in 2005.
Doyle is the only defendant in Jefferson Parish currently charged with a capital offense. The last time prosecutors sought a death sentence in Jefferson was six years ago.
In preparing for what could be a two-week trial, parish officials planned to summon 750 prospective jurors to the courthouse last week, although it was unclear how many people showed up to answer more than 100 questions in confidential questionnaires.
The responses are designed to give the lawyers and the judge a general sense of prospective jurors before jury selection begins sometime in mid-March. The judge declined to provide a copy of the questionnaire to a reporter.
"Trial by jury is a keystone of our system of justice," Judge June Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court told the crowd gathered in the jury assembly room Friday before her staff and deputies distributed pens and questionnaires related to what she referred to only as "a trial."
If Doyle is convicted of first-degree murder, prosecutors Vince Paciera and Jackie Maloney will urge jurors to recommend that Doyle die by lethal injection.
Last month, Doyle's appointed attorneys, Kyla Blanchard-Romanach and Bruce Dodd of Baton Rouge, argued their client is mentally retarded, meaning that under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the state cannot seek the death penalty.
The argument has led to a string of evaluations and a stern warning from Darensburg that the late-coming defense claim in the 5-year-old case would not derail the March trial.
"We are going forward with this trial," she told the attorneys last month.
The last first-degree murder trial in Jefferson Parish was in 2005, when Mark Cambre was convicted of killing retired New Orleans police officer Kelly Marrione. But the jury couldn't reach a unanimous decision on the punishment, and Cambre was sentenced to life in prison. The last death sentence handed down in Jefferson was in 2004, after Dustin Dressner was convicted of killing Paul Fasullo of Marrero.
Doyle, who has a history of erratic courtroom behavior, was not present for Friday's hearings.
According to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, Doyle and Jose Rojas went on an armed robbery spree that culminated just before 7 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2005, when Lee, who was helping her family run their Barataria Boulevard store, was shot four times despite complying with the robbers' demands that she turn over the cash.
Rojas, 26, of Marrero, is accused of being the getaway driver. He is awaiting trial on a charge of second-degree murder.
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...ital_case.html
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