Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
A city man accused of murder is going to have to wait a little longer before a jury is seated to decide his guilt or innocence.
Kevin L. West, 23, of Youngstown, was set to go on trial before Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas, but she declared a mistrial Tuesday in the case because a jury could not be seated.
Attorneys for West and prosecutors had spent Monday questioning prospective jurors and excusing those who would not be used in the trial.
The judge declared a mistrial because so many jurors from the panel of 25 from which the 12 trial jurors were to be chosen had to be excused for cause.
Jurors are excused for cause if questioning shows the juror cannot be impartial.
One potential juror, a deputy sheriff, was excused because he may have transported West to the jail while he was in custody; another, a TV camera man, filmed the homicide scene shortly after the crime; and another was a relative of an investigator on the case.
Judge Sweeney set a date of Dec. 6 for a new trial in the case.
West is accused in the August 2008 murder of Delbert L. Jones, 22, of 814 W. Indianola Ave. Jones was found face down in a field adjacent to his home with several gunshot wounds to his back. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said West was driving down the road where Jones was, stopped the car and got out and shot Jones.
Authorities said West and Jones were acquaintances, but a specific relationship has not been determined.