A jury has been selected in the John N. Marvin Jr. case, and the trial will begin today.
Marvin is accused of fatally shooting two police officers in Hoonah in 2010 and barricading himself in his house for a day and a half. He is facing two counts of first-degree murder, and if convicted, he could be facing life in prison.
Fourteen jurors were selected: 11 men and three women. Two will serve as alternates.
The jurors took an oath after they were selected, and they were instructed to report back to court Thursday morning for opening statements.
District Attorney David Brower said he plans on playing an audio recording of the police scanner radio traffic and displaying photographs of the slain police officers during his opening statements. Brower produced a potential witness list to the court that contained almost 100 names.
The defense attorney, Public Defender Eric Hedland, did not say what he is planning on opening with. He did, however, emphasize several points during general voir dire, or questioning of the prospective jurors, such as the fact that the state has to prove Marvin “intentionally” killed the two officers. He quizzed the prospective jurors on the definition of intentional and “state of mind,” as well as how those things could possibly be determined.
Outside the presence of the jurors, Hedland requested the trial be held outside of Juneau, citing pretrial publicity. He argued of the 90 prospective jurors that were questioned, only seven were completely unfamiliar with the case. (Of the 14 that were ultimately chosen, only two were unfamiliar with the case.)
Sitka Superior Court Judge David George, who is presiding over the trial, denied the request, saying, “I don’t find that because of the dissemination of potentially prejudicial material there is a substantial likelihood that in the absence of a change of venue a fair trial can’t be had in Juneau.”
It took three days to select the jurors out of approximately 90 people who were summoned to court for jury duty.
Opening statements will begin at 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
Marvin initially was declared incompetent to stand trial but was cleared to proceed in June. Defense attorney Hedland sought another competency hearing last week after complaining that Marvin was unwilling or unable to communicate with him. That evaluation was conducted in Anchorage, and Sitka Superior Court Judge David George on Friday found him competent to stand trial.
(The Associated Press contributed the last paragraph of this report.)
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (17)
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@JE
Please be sure to have a reporter at this trial every day. Please also report to us, daily the highlights and important details. With that, please be respectful of the families involved; they have suffered enough and this trial is going to open wounds yet again.
May justice be served...
"the fact that the state has
"the fact that the state has to prove Marvin “intentionally” killed the two officers." I can see it know. "I regularly fire my high caliber rifle out the window of my house to scare of crows and other birds. I had no idea they were there," or maybe "The voices in my head told me to shoot the ghosts that were swirling all around my house!"
marvin has quite a stink eye...
I get the heebies just looking at his picture. He's nuttier than a squirrel turd.
he killed 2 police officer
He is guilty he needs to pay what he did. These officer were there to protect us. What gives this guy to think he has the right to kill. So sad for the officers and their family my heart go out to them
sighhh
I just don't see what his defense will be... Haley has to testify today and talk about everything she saw.... :(
He has none
He's not even responding to his public defender. Other than reviewing the abundant evidence and ensuring the process is conducted fairly, his lawyer has no defense.
That "man" is evil inside and
That "man" is evil inside and out. Just seeing his stare in that photo makes my stomach cringe. He is filled with hate, a sick twisted, evil hate and needs to be put down or locked away for life. At least he still has his life, unlike those two officers whose lives were taken by this scumbag. No doubt he did it, plenty of people witnessed it and the way he had barricaded himself in the house should be proof enough that it was a planned and calculated murder!
My thoughts and prayers go out to the loved ones of the officers. They will have to relive these horrible murders because the law wants to make sure he is treated "fairly". A poster once said that the law protects the criminals and forgets about the victims. This case is living proof of that.
@FOR REAL
You are wrong.
The reason they have to relive these horrible murders is that the Law wants to be sure that when it is your turn as the accused you get a fair shake.
Tell you whats really unforgivable; Hoonah PD and the Alaska Courts had known for months that Marvin was dangerous and that he had some sort of mental defect. Nothing was done. Nothing.
Who wants to bet
The State will not enter into evidence anything that shows prior contact with law enforcement or the courts that happened in the preceding 6 months.
I'm also betting that if the Defense tries to enter something like that into evidence it will be opposed vigorously by the State.
This case is very, very similar to the Abbott murders in Sitka in 2008. In that case Abbott had been arrested by Sitka Police because he assaulted his mother three days prior to murdering her and three other people in her house. At the time of the assaults, His mother had told police that he was dangerous and that he had some sort of significant mental health issue… the next day they released him to her custody. It’s an interesting and frankly scary case. Made even more so when you see it playing out again in the same way.
http://juneauempire.com/stories/051709/sta_440931959.shtml
Change of venue warranted
Pretty much any local that does not know he murdered, in cold blood, those two police officers has not been paying attention at all. I doubt the judgment ability of anyone who is so unaware of local events. I worry some nimrod on the jury will torpedo what should be a clear slam dunk case.
Which is why a COV should have been granted-just as much as he deserves an unbiased jury, the public deserves an untainted process. A COV would move it to an area where you could get a good pool of people who may have not heard all the details of this case and could render a fair verdict. Confidence in the justice process demands a COV.
I don’t normally disagree with a Judge’s decision, but in this case I do.
Let the wheels of justice grind on.
@ El Boorba
you bring forward a compelling argument. I agree with you.
@ AHHA
If her son was so disturbed, and she believed he was a danger why did she sign a third party agreement. As a third party you can revoke the custody agreement at any time for any reason and the perp go back to the slammer. It is possible, and likely, the mother and the family were enablers and their own behavior contributed to the final end. Sorry to say that but it is probable. Also, I do not see this case playing out as in Sitka.
@AKJust
I'd like to be able to ask her just how that happened to occur but well, she is no longer available. It's certain that the court and the police both knew he had serious issues and they knew he was violent. They let him loose. Not her.
As far as how this case will play out, well, we are already off to a very good start. HPD and the court were both aware that Marvin had Mental Health issues and that he was violent, and had known for quite a long while and yet, he remained on the street.
very similar to the Sitka case so far.
Don't get me wrong, i think that there is little doubt he did it and little doubt it was murder. Bad acts by the State are not an excuse for bad acts on his part. It just bothers me that in both cases the deaths were seemingly pretty predictable and pretty preventable.
At AH HA
Hes had several run ins and there wasnt anything legally they could do becasue he doesnt have a mental defect.... hes just playing any cards he can while he can. One of the motives that i have heard through my family is that Matt and Tony arrested him a year prior to the shooting for having a gun out in public but the charges were later dropped so they think there was some kind of grudge. but there is no way of really knowing. Tony's mother being a registered nurse had said to our fam that when she saw where the bullets entered she knew there was no chance :( so he knew EXACTLY what he was doing.. hes going away for life.
There are risk to living in a free society...
There are risk to living in a free society and one of them is that we have to deal with criminal scumbags. The down side is some of them roam around with the rest of us, and they even tend to look normal like the rest of use too. With that, the police can not just arrest people because we think ill of them. There has to be probable cause with some compelling evidence. This scumbag did a completely cowardice act and killed 2 fine officers in cold blood.
198 years is too good for him! He deserves some other hellish punishment for the remainder of his pathetic life!
Looks like Marvin would like to do the same to the D.A.
***
@JE
We did not see anything from you folks tonight on line. Are we going to see a synopsis of Thursdays proceedings? We sure hope so!
Crazy is as crazy does!
For what he did; may he smoke in hell at the hands of Beelzebub, but he is bat-crap crazy and should be treated as such. How he was found competent to stand trial is beyond me!