Jurors report in Seman case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Jurors reported Friday to the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to begin the process of jury selection in the capital murder case of Robert Seman.

About 160 potential jurors were on hand to fill out questionnaires and take their oaths as jurors before Judge Maureen Sweeney, who is conducting jury selection in the case for the second time.

Individual questioning of jurors is expected to begin next week.

In September, jury selection in the case was halted before it got to the individual questioning stage after Judge Sweeney declared a mistrial because of disparaging remarks a juror made about Seman as jurors filled out their questionnaires.

To counter that this time, Judge Sweeney broke the jurors up into smaller groups to fill out their paperwork, each group accompanied by several deputies who could monitor conversations and inform the judge if anything inappropriate was said as well as isolating groups of jurors in case a remark was uttered.

Several extra deputies were on hand as jurors filled the courthouse.

Seman can face the death penalty if convicted of the March 30, 2015, deaths of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, during an arson at their Powers Way home on the South Side just hours before Seman was to go on trial on a charge he raped the girl. Seman was free on bond at the time of the fire.