Elbert County jury selected for murder charges retrial

ELBERTON, Ga. - An Elbert County jury has heard opening statements in the second trial of Albert R. Wymbs on murder charges.

Mr. Wymbs, 30, is charged in the 1996 stabbing death of 24-year-old Angela Harris, an Athens Regional Medical Center employee found dead in her home near the Madison County-Clarke County line.

A Madison County Superior Court jury deadlocked on the case a year ago, prompting a mistrial. Judge Thomas Hodges agreed to move the retrial to Elberton because of intense publicity surrounding the case.

Ms. Harris' slaying went without an arrest for nearly four years, until a former friend of Mr. Wymbs implicated him in the death. Mr. Wymbs also is awaiting trial after being indicted this year by a Clarke County jury in the 1994 kidnapping and rape of a University of Georgia student.

A jury seated in this week's trial includes three white women, five white men, two black women and two black men, plus two alternates. They will hear the case beginning at 9 a.m. today in Elbert County Superior Court.