Grant Hayes jury selection continues

Prosecutors and defense attorneys continue to pick jurors Tuesday in the trial of a Raleigh man accused of murdering the mother of his two children and cutting up her body.

The trial of Grant Hayes - aka Grant Haze - is expected to last several weeks.

Hayes and his current wife Amanda are accused of killing 27-year-old Laura Ackerson in 2011, dismembering her body, and then putting the parts in coolers for a cross-country drive to Texas.

Grant Hayes and his wife are being tried separately.

Prosecutors say Ackerson's remains were dumped in a creek near Amanda Hayes' sister's house. Police divers recovered the body parts in Oyster Creek near Skinner Lane in Richmond, Texas in July 2011.

Ackerson was the mother of Grant Hayes' two oldest children and she had lost custody of them to Hayes and his wife, who also had a newborn baby with Hayes. Ackerson was fighting in court to get her kids back when she was killed.

Grant Hayes was a local musician in Raleigh.

Prosecutors said he legally changed the spelling of his last name from Hayes to Haze, so they now refer to him as "Grant Haze, aka Grant Hayes."

So far, 12 jurors have been picked by the prosecution. If the defense strikes any of the jurors already picked by the prosecution, and that is likely, then the process of picking those replacements will begin again.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?se...cal&id=9219428