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Jury process to start for second time in Seman case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
About 160 potential jurors are expected today to report to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the second attempt at picking a jury in the Robert Seman capital murder case.
Jurors will report about 1:30 p.m., take their oaths, then fill out paperwork. After they are done, individual questioning of jurors is expected to begin next week.
Seman, 48, of Green, could face the death penalty if convicted in the March 30, 2015, deaths of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, during a March 30, 2015, arson at their Powers Way home on the South Side. He’s charged with aggravated murder in each death.
Jury selection was just starting in the case in September when it was halted after one of the members of the jury pool made disparaging remarks about Seman to other jurors. Defense attorneys asked for a mistrial, which Judge Maureen Sweeney granted.
To avoid a repeat of that this time, Judge Sweeney has instituted a number of measures, starting with bringing in jurors on a Friday afternoon, which is typically the slowest day of the week, allowing for more deputies who work security at the courthouse to be available.
Jurors also will be separated into several small groups, and each will be watched over by a deputy who can monitor conversations and report anything inappropriate to the judge.
The jury-selection process is expected to take several weeks.
Seman’s attorneys have filed a motion to change the venue of the trial because of intense pretrial publicity. Judge Sweeney has said in numerous pretrials she will not rule on the motion unless there is difficulty in picking 12 jurors and four alternates for the case.
The new jury pool had contained 400 names, but it was whittled down considerably because of jurors who cannot serve and other jurors who could not be found to issue them their summonses to jury duty.
At the time of the fire at the Schmidts’ home, Seman was free on $200,000 bail and facing a charge of raping Corinne, a charge that carries a life sentence. The fire was set just hours before his trial was to start in that case.
Death-penalty specifications that Seman meets include killing two or more people; killing someone in the commission of a felony, in this case aggravated burglary and aggravated arson, of which he is also charged; wanting to escape prosecution from a crime; causing the death of someone under 13; killing the victim or witness to a crime; and using premeditation.
If jurors find Seman is eligible for the death penalty, a second phase of the trial, or mitigation phase, will begin. In that phase, defense attorneys will try to offer factors to jurors to persuade them not to sentence their client to death. Only a jury can recommend a death sentence. Judge Sweeney can accept or reject that recommendation.