Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) –– The trial for Kenneth Augustine is underway nearly six years after his arrest, starting with jury selection.
Augustine is accused of fatally shooting Darnisha Desilva and her fiancé Gregory Heisser, III, in 2018.
Jury selection was set to begin Monday morning, but when the court called for them, there were no more jurors available, forcing Judge Benedict Willard to delay the case by one day.
The court called up 60 potential jurors to be questioned by the prosecutors and defense attorneys. The process is known as voir dire, which means “to speak the truth.” It allows attorneys to weed out any jurors who may have a personal connection to the case at hand or bias that would prevent them from fairly serving on the jury.
Some questions posed to potential jurors were simple, like what they do for work or where they are from. However, other questions were more complex, like asking jurors to rate how likely they would trust a testimony, depending on who was on the stand. The example that came up frequently was if they would trust the testimony of a child.
After nearly seven hours of questioning, the attorneys narrowed down the list to 12 jurors with two alternates.
Family members of the victims were emotional after jury selection.
“I’m just thankful that we’re all on the same page and able to move forward, with a goal in mind for justice to be served,” said the mother of Gregory Heisser, III Lurline LaBeaud Duncan.
The trial will continue Wednesday morning, starting with opening statements.
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