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Lamar HS shooting trial: Jury selection begins
16-year-old Ja'Shawn Poirier was shot and killed on March 20 as the school day at Arlington Lamar High School was about to begin. Now the trial for the shooter is set to begin.
ARLINGTON, Texas - Jury selection got underway Monday for the now 16-year-old charged with killing another teen at Arlington’s Lamar High School back in March.
Nearly 100 people were in the jury pool on Monday. The potential jurors were asked whether they had heard about this case and whether they formed an opinion about what should happen.
The first 12 people to respond no to both questions were seated as jurors.
16-year-old Ja'Shawn Poirier was shot and killed on March 20 as the school day was about to begin.
Motive in Arlington Lamar High School student's murder remains unclear
The high school student murdered on campus in Arlington last month would have celebrated his 17th birthday this week. His family is trying to make sense of just why he was gunned down allegedly by a 15-year-old boy.
Another student was hit in the face by shrapnel.
Judge Alex Kim ruled this summer that the juvenile shooter would not be tried as an adult.
"Oh it is absolutely a victory, because most of the time the difference between capital murder is the punishment is automatic," said Heath Harris, an attorney not associated with the case.
The shooter, who was 15 at the time of the incident and is now 16 years old, has pleaded true to Capital Murder and attempted Capital Murder.
After the shooting, police found weapons in the apartment that he shared with his father.
The father, a convicted felon, was sentenced this month to six years in federal prison for illegal possession of firearms.
When the trial was scheduled to start in August the teen had some kind of incident that put proceedings on pause.
Trial for teen Arlington Lamar High School shooting suspect put on hold
The trial for a teen accused of killing a classmate and injuring another student in a shooting outside Lamar High School in Arlington has been put on hold so the suspect can undergo a mental evaluation.
Judge Alex Kim said the incident could open the teen up to additional criminal charges, but did not explain more at that time.
Jurors will decide how long he will be in confinement under what's called determinant sentencing.
Juvenile determinant sentencing punishments range from probation to 40 years, with rehabilitation evaluations
"Unless there's just some overwhelming mitigating circumstances that lead to this offense the likelihood is - he's already received his guilt he's going to get up to 40, but then how much time he actually ends up doing it's going to be based on his performance," said Harris, who practices in both adult and juvenile court.
Performance includes whether he accepts responsibility and shows remorse, avoids conflict, demonstrates an ability to follow the rules and if he takes advantage of rehabilitation programs.
"By the time he is 19 there will be another hearing, and they will decide whether or not he's going to go to the Texas Department of Corrections, but again it's going to all be based on his performance and how well he's done on the rehabilitation track," Harris said.
The trial is expected to last through Thursday of this week.
In the coming days we will likely learn what the incident was that caused the previous postponement of jury selection and trial.