HOLLIDAYSBURG - The jury that was to try Nicholas A. Horner of Altoona for homicide was dismissed Monday and a new jury will be selected beginning March 12, Blair County President Judge Jolene G. Kopriva ruled.
It marks only the second time in almost 30 years that a Blair County jury selection was halted, only to be restarted with a new jury pool.
The 12-member Horner jury and two alternates had been selected in January for the trial of the Army veteran accused of killing two people and wounding another during a 2009 robbery of an Altoona restaurant.
The jurors were supposed to begin hearing testimony on Jan. 17, but, with only two alternates left to pick, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery issued a stay so the state's highest court could determine whether to overturn a ruling by Kopriva that barred the use of an insanity defense.
It took the court three weeks to review the emergency petition filed by Horner's lead attorney, Thomas M. Dickey, but in the end, it decided to remove the stay without comment on Kopriva's order.
After the Supreme Court lifted its stay, the judge scheduled the Monday afternoon meeting with the attorneys for each side and the jurors.
There were two questions to answer: When would it be feasible to begin the Horner trial, and did the jurors remain impartial during the delay?
The first question - a new trial date - rested on the availability of prosecution and defense witnesses, including psychologists, psychiatrists and alcohol and drug experts, who are expected to testify concerning Horner's mental state during the alleged April 6, 2009, robbery at Subway Altoona.
Scott Garlick, 19, of Hollidaysburg was killed, and Michele Petty was wounded. Both were Subway workers. Raymond Williams, 64, who lived near the restaurant was killed in Horner's attempt to flee.
One of Dickey's key experts, Ernest Boswell, a Minnesota psychologist, is on vacation and will not be available to testify until mid-March, the judge was told.
With the trial delayed for yet another month, the second question came to the forefront. Would it be possible to keep the jurors from learning about the insanity issue?
Blair County Deputy District Attorney Jackie Bernard explained that the jurors would have to be questioned on a regular basis to make sure they remain impartial.
If in early March, it was determined that some of the jurors had been exposed to prejudicial opinions or to the controversy surrounding the insanity defense, it would be too late to bring in a panel for jury selection on March 12.
Bernard explained that potential jurors, under the law, must be given at least 30 days' notice of jury duty.
Horner agreed to waive the jury panel that had been selected and go with a new jury.
Dickey explained he has not given up on the insanity defense.
He said he will ask Kopriva's permission to appeal her ruling to the state Superior Court, noting he still believes it is important that Horner be allowed to present the jury with a defense that takes into account the dramatic effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions from which he was allegedly suffering the day of the robbery.
Dickey said he doesn't know if a Blair County jury can still be selected in view of all the publicity that has occurred, but he said he favors local juries and said the 14 members of the panel who were let go Monday constituted a good jury.
The last time jury selection was halted and then redone was in March 1983 when former Blair County Judge R. Bruce Brumbaugh ruled that he was in error when he barred the news media from viewing the jury selection in the Vincent D. Caracciolo corruption trial.
The media, including the Mirror and WFBG-AM, were kicked out of the courtroom, and seven jurors were picked behind closed doors because the attorneys didn't want the public to hear potentially embarassing questions they were going to ask prospective jurors about their racial and ethnic preferences.
The media appealed Brumbaugh's order to the state Supreme Court, but the appeal was stayed as Brumbaugh reviewed two federal court rulings that led to him reversing his initial order and reopening the court for jury selection from another jury pool.
Kopriva was philosophical about the recent turn in the Horner case.
"If we live long enough, nothing is perfect. We just take life as it comes," she said.
