Tuesday was an unusual day for jury selection in Kosciusko County's Superior Court I.
After sifting through the 39 people in the jury pool, only 11 people had been seated for the trial of Shawn Lester Hattery, which is scheduled for four days.Since 12 people were not selected, the court recessed to give Bailiff Linda Furnivall time to get more people into the courtroom to serve on the jury. Eventually, six people were called into the courtroom to try to fill the remaining spot.
After questioning the six people, the prosecution and the defense selected the 12th juror as well as two alternates.
Once the jury was seated and given instructions for duty, Deputy Prosecutor Dan Hampton and defense attorney Scott Lennox presented their opening arguments in the case.
Hampton told the jury that the state would provide evidence to prove that Hattery is guilty of the 17 felony charges against him.
Hattery is accused of burglarizing a 21-year-old woman's apartment, beating her and then raping her multiple times before stealing her purse and cellular telephone. The alleged incident took place Oct. 5, 2005.
Hattery faces felony burglary, battery, criminal confinement, criminal deviate sexual conduct, attempted deviate sexual conduct, rape, sexual battery, obstruction of justice and theft.
Hampton told the jury that the state would present DNA evidence that matches Hattery's DNA with the DNA evidence collected from the victim during a rape exam at the hospital.
In his opening statement, Hampton described the incident as a "nightmare" for the victim, who was an honor student at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology interning for Zimmer in Warsaw when the attack occurred.
Hampton described the victims wounds and how she was bound and raped three times in a span of about two hours.
Once Hampton finished, Lennox addressed the jury. Admitting that his client was facing "an uphill battle", Lennox said the defense would show "flaws and imperfections in the state's case" that were due to "sloppy, shoddy police work."
Lennox also described the case as a puzzle in which all the pieces do not fit together, and told the jury "There are always two sides to every story."
The trial continued today at 8:30 a.m. as the prosecution called its first witnesses to the stand.
