Jury seated in Curtis Reeves' murder trial in Pasco movie theater killing

[Zorro]

After days of grueling questioning, the six-person jury in the murder trial of the retired Tampa police captain has been seated. Opening statements are set to begin Monday.

DADE CITY — It wasn’t pretty, and it certainly wasn’t easy, but after four long days inside Pasco County’s Dade City courthouse, six jurors and four alternates were finally seated Thursday evening.

That day was supposed to be the start of retired Tampa police captain Curtis Reeves’ second-degree murder trial for the fatal shooting of 43-year-old father Chad Oulson at a Wesley Chapel movie theater in January 2014.

That was eight years ago, a point that’s led state prosecutors and lawyers representing Oulson’s widow to question whether Reeves’ defense team has purposefully filed motion after motion, challenge after challenge, to prolong their client’s day in court. Now 79, Reeves has spent much of the past eight years under house arrest after his release from jail on $150,000 bond in July 2014.

But as the clock ticked past 4 p.m. on Thursday, and then past 4:30 p.m., Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Susan Barthle made it clear that Reeves’ trial would proceed as planned next week — and not a single day later.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/pasco/2022/02/10/jury-seated-in-curtis-reeves-murder-trial-in-pasco-movie-theater-killing/

So the trial begins only 8 years after the retired police captain killed another moviegoer after getting upset about the victim texting during the previews...