Jury selection under way this week for Lawrence Co. murder trial

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Jury selection began this week in the murder trial of Michael Roberts, 29, who’s accused of bludgeoning another city man with a bar stool.

Lawyers could be as long as two weeks in seating a jury because the district attorney’s office plans to seek the death penalty, William Flannery, assistant district attorney, said Monday outside the courtroom of President Judge Dominick Motto of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court, where jury selection was to start.

Roberts is accused of beating Daniel Palumbo, 48, on March 25, 2005, in Palumbo’s East Long Avenue basement. Palumbo died the next day at St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown.

Three people told police that Roberts had told them about the killing, said an affidavit filed to support the charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault and simple assault.

One of those people indicated Roberts went to burglarize Palumbo’s house because he heard there were OxyContin pills there.

Roberts lived on Lathrop Street in the city.