BENTONVILLE -- One hundred prospective jurors will be called for the retrial of a man accused of torturing his son to death, a circuit judge said Friday.
The Benton County Circuit Clerk's Office will begin Wednesday calling prospective jurors for Mauricio Torres' second capital murder trial. Torres, 50, of Bella Vista is charged with capital murder and battery in connection with the death of his 6-year-old son Maurice Isaiah Torres.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Feb. 18. The 100 individuals will be told to report at noon Feb. 18 to Bentonville District Court for initial questioning by Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren, Karren said Friday. His courtroom is too small to hold that many people.
Prospective jurors will then be questioned in groups of three by the attorneys. There will be four groups interviewed each day. Twelve jurors and three alternates will be selected.
Jury selection is expected to take a few days and the trial may last one to two weeks.
Isaiah Torres died March 30, 2015, at a Bella Vista medical clinic. A medical examiner testified in the 2016 trial the boy's death was caused by a bacterial infection resulting from sodomy.
Torres is accused of sodomizing his son with a stick in Missouri. He was convicted at trial in 2016, and Karren sentenced him to death on the jury's recommendation.
Torres argued in his appeal the judge should have ruled the state failed to prove its case for the death sentence.
The state Supreme Court agreed, saying prosecutors must prove an element of rape occurred in Arkansas if the rape is used to support the death penalty. The court ordered in April 2019 that Torres be retried.
Jeff Rosenzweig, one of Torres' attorneys, requested at Friday's hearing Torres be allowed to shower, shave and brush his teeth each day of the trial.
"We believe it's important he's allowed to do it each day," Rosenzweig said.
Karren granted the request.
Lt. Shannon Jenkins, the spokeswoman for the Benton County Sheriff's Office, said inmates are allowed to shower daily.
The same witnesses are expected to testify during the trial who were called in his first trial with the exception of Cathy Torres. She's the boy's mother.
Both prosecutors and the defense team have Cathy Torres on their witness list. The judge asked the attorneys how long they expected it will to take for Cathy Torres to testify.
Bill James, another attorney for Mauricio Torres, told the judge he expects if Cathy Torres testifies it will take at least a day.
She pleaded guilty in March 2017 to capital murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
NW News on 02/08/2020