Jury selection in trials for Carnation murders could take months

On Christmas Eve 2007, six members of an extended family were shot to death in a home in Carnation. After years of delays, the first of two aggravated murder trials is underway with jury selection that could take several months.

This week, groups of eight to 10 potential jurors are sitting in a courtroom in Seattle, answering questions from attorneys and a judge, mostly concerning their opinions about the death penalty. Joseph McEnroe and Michele Anderson are each charged with six counts of aggravated murder for the shooting deaths of Anderson’s parents, her brother and sister-in-law and their two small children.

Jury selection started last summer with the county sending out 3,000 summonses, hoping about 650 people would respond.

“But the number of people who came in the door were more than we expected,” said King County jury manager Greg Wheeler. Almost 750 responded.

In 2010, Superior Court Judge Greg Canova presided over the aggravated murder trial of a man who killed four neighbors and set their Kirkland house on fire.

“It was going to be more difficult to select a jury because of people’s strong feelings on one side or the other of the issue of the death penalty.”

So, Judge Canova started with 600 potential jurors.

“From that jury pool, with scheduling in advance, a set number of jurors to appear every day in subsequent weeks, it took us roughly six to eight weeks to pick this jury.”

Judge Canova said that the jury that heard that 2010 capital case was a good cross section of the community, not just old people or employees of companies that pay their workers’ salary during jury duty. The jury convicted Conner Scheirman and then voted again to sentence him to death.

In the Carnation case, McEnroe is first to go to trial. The trial court is hoping to pick a final jury of 17, including alternates, just before Christmas. Then, the trial could last four months.

You might wonder how anybody could sit on a jury that long, other than the retired or unemployed. Particularly with juror pay of $10 a day, unchanged since the Eisenhower administration, according to Wheeler.

A few years ago, King County was part of a pilot project to gauge the need to raise jury pay, using minimum wage as a suggested increase.

“The results surprised all of us, frankly,” said Judge Canova. “The bottom line was, there was no appreciable increase in the number of people who were able to serve on jury duty.”

The Anderson-McEnroe case has dragged on due to multiple legal issues, including changes in defense attorneys and a challenge to the prosecutor’s application of the death penalty. At one point, the trial judge tossed the death penalty but it was reinstated earlier this year by the State Supreme Court. The prosecution attempted to get a new judge assigned to the case, which would have meant even further delays.

No trial date has been set for Michele Anderson. Oral arguments are scheduled for this Friday in King County Superior Court in a competency hearing. She has been found competent to stand trial in previous hearings.

When opening statements are heard next year in the McEnroe trial, it will have been seven years since the murders. The cost to prosecute and defend McEnroe and Anderson is approaching the most expensive case in King County history, the $12 million spent to investigate and try Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer.