With 45 residents already qualified for Reinaldo Rivera's death penalty trial, individual questioning of potential jurors might be over by tonight.
The judge and attorneys want to have 62 to 64 potential jurors ready Monday for the final jury selection in Mr. Rivera's capital murder trial in Richmond County Superior Court.
Mr. Rivera, 40, has pleaded innocent to 14 criminal charges related to the alleged sexual assaults of three women in Augusta and the strangulation death of Army Sgt. Marni Glista.
Because prosecutors will seek the death penalty if Mr. Rivera is convicted of murder in Sgt. Glista's Sept. 9, 2000, death, each of the potential jurors called this week must undergo individual questioning.
To qualify for the final jury pool, residents must enter the trial with no opinion of Mr. Rivera's guilt or innocence, and must be willing to consider all three punishments if Mr. Rivera is convicted of murder - life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, or death.
As of Wednesday night, seven potential jurors had been excused because they could not conceive of voting for a particular punishment, and five because they said they firmly believe Mr. Rivera is guilty.
One potential juror questioned Wednesday was emphatic that Mr. Rivera is guilty, based on media reports.
"I know you can't believe everything you read, but," the father of two girls said, there is the alleged victim who survived. And, he said, the homicides stopped. "(There have been) no more young girls butchered ... no more families destroyed."
Mr. Rivera's defense team, attorneys Peter Johnson and Jacque Hawk, didn't have to ask the judge to excuse the man from jury duty.
"I think this one's got to go," Judge Albert M. Pickett said.
Mr. Rivera's trial in Richmond County Superior Court is the first of four possible capital murder trials. He also faces charges in Columbia County for the June 22, 2000, slaying of Tabitha L. Bosdell, and in Aiken County for the July 17, 1999, killing of Melissa Dingess, and the Dec. 4, 1999, killing of Tiffaney S. Wilson.
Each of the young women, 17 at the time of their deaths, was sexually assaulted and killed, Mr. Rivera told investigators after his arrest following a near fatal attack Oct. 10, 2000, on an Augusta teenager.
Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.
