Defense attorney Jacque Hawk (left) asks questions during jury selection in preparation for the trial of Reinaldo Rivera (right). Mr. Rivera faces 14 criminal charges in the sexual assault of three women and the slaying of one in Augusta. Visit our special section on the Reinaldo Rivera case. Andrew Davis Tucker/Staff

Jury pool is narrowed

Potential jurors return through the week for individual questioning. Final juror selection will take place Monday or Tuesday of next week.

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Defendant Reinaldo Rivera, right, talks with his lawyers Peter Johnson, left, and Jacque Hawk, above, during jury selection on the first day of Rivera's death penalty case in superior court at the Municipal Building on Monday, January 5, 2003. Visit our special section on the Reinaldo Rivera case. Andrew Davis Tucker/Staff Defendant Reinaldo Rivera, left, talks to bailiff Robert West during jury selection on the first day of his death penalty case in superior court at the Municipal Building on Monday, January 5, 2003. Rivera is being charged with a fourteen count indictment that includes charges of murder, rape, sodomy and assault. Visit our special section on the Reinaldo Rivera case. Andrew Davis Tucker/Staff

The shuffling, coughing and attention-wandering that overtakes any room with more than 100 people halted Monday as the judge read through the 14 criminal charges Reinaldo Rivera faces in his capital murder trial.

"The indictment is not evidence. The indictment is charges - charges met with a plea of not guilty," Judge Albert M. Pickett told potential jurors after reading through each charge relating to the sexual assaults of three women in Augusta and the slaying of one of them, Army Sgt. Marni Glista, 21, who was stationed at Fort Gordon.

Mr. Rivera, 40, has pleaded innocent in Richmond County Superior Court. If he is convicted of murder in Sgt. Glista's strangulation, prosecutors will ask the jury to impose a death sentence.

As a group, the potential jurors were asked only some general questions, although District Attorney Danny Craig gave them some additional information to consider: the disappearance of three other women later found dead - Melissa Dingess, 17, of Graniteville; Tiffaney Wilson, 17, of Jackson; and Tabitha Bosdell, 17, of Augusta.

Because it is a death-penalty trial, the residents summoned for jury duty Monday were divided into panels and given different times and dates to return this week for individual questioning.

Each potential juror must be questioned as to impartiality regarding Mr. Rivera's possible guilt or innocence in this case and a willingness to consider all three possible punishments if Mr. Rivera is convicted of murder - life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, and death. Those who are impartial and capable of considering each punishment option are considered qualified.

On Monday afternoon, attorneys questioned 12 potential jurors, and Judge Pickett deemed 10 qualified to serve. Final juror selection will take place Monday or Tuesday of next week.

The individual questioning gave defense attorneys Peter Johnson and Jacque Hawk the chance to broach subjects they might use if Mr. Rivera is convicted. The defense asked jurors about their familiarity with sexual addiction, pornography, genetics defects and what effect child molestation might have on a person.

Though Mr. Rivera has entered a plea of innocent, the defense will ask that the jury be given the option of finding Mr. Rivera guilty but mentally ill.

Mr. Rivera was arrested in October 2000 after a nearly fatal attack on an Augusta teenager. In interviews with investigators, he told them of attacking five young women in the Augusta area after persuading them to let him take photographs of them. The directions he provided helped officers find the remains of Mrs. Dingess in Aiken County and Ms. Bosdell in Columbia County.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Tuesday, January 6, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle