BENTONVILLE — Two people were selected Thursday to serve on Mauricio Torres’ third capital murder trial.
The proceedings were slated to begin Monday but were postponed because of the weather.
The attorneys selected the two after questioning six prospective jurors.
Torres, 53, of Bella Vista is accused of shoving a stick in his 6-year-old son’s rectum, causing an infection that led to the boy’s death.
Maurice Isaiah Torres, 6, died March 30, 2015, at a Bella Vista medical clinic, according to court documents.
Mauricio Torres is charged with capital murder and battery. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted of capital murder, Torres will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without the benefit of parole.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith questioned the first three prospective jurors about their feelings about the death penalty, the presumption of innocence and pretrial publicity.
He asked two men and one woman about the death penalty. He said jurors have to be able to consider both punishments: life imprisonment or a death sentence.
The two men said they could vote in favor of the death penalty based on the evidence. The woman said she would struggle giving someone the death penalty; she said she could vote for the death penalty in one situation.
Smith wanted to know in what situation she’d vote for the death sentence. It would be the death of her child, she said.
Smith asked the three if they had heard about the Torres case in the media. Two responded they had heard of the case.
Smith asked if they could set aside what they had heard and decide a verdict based on the evidence presented to them in the courtroom. Both said they could make decisions based on the evidence.
The three also said they agreed Torres had a presumption of innocence.
Jeff Rosenzweig, one of Torres’ attorneys, wanted to know whether the three would hold the prosecutors to their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
The three said they could hold prosecutors to that burden.
“The person deceased in this case is young … about 6 years old,” Rosenzweig said.
He wanted to know if the three would hold the prosecutors to the same burden even though the case involved a young child. The three answered they could hold prosecutors to the same burden.
Rosenzweig asked the panel about pretrial publicity.
The woman said she had heard about the case in the news and had discussed it with a family member. She said she had not formed any opinions of the case.
One of the men said he had heard about the case but hadn’t formed any opinions. The other man said he hadn’t heard anything about the case and was unaware of it when he reported for jury service.
Rosenzweig said Torres is Hispanic and originally from El Salvador and came to the United States when he was 9 or 10 years old. Rosenzweig asked the three about their views on immigration. None of them had any strong opinions concerning immigration.
Rosenzweig also asked about the discipline of children. The three didn’t believe in physical discipline in homes or schools.
None of the three were selected to serve on the panel.
Three more people faced a similar line of questioning after the first panel. One man and one woman were selected to serve on the jury from that second panel.
Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren conducted his initial questioning of jurors Thursday morning. The prospective jurors were put in groups of three and given times to report back to be questioned by the attorneys.
Four more panels will be questioned today.
Torres, who is being held without bond in the Benton County Jail, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in 2016 in his son’s murder, but the state Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2019 and ordered Torres be given a new trial.
A second jury found Torres guilty of murder and battery charges. The proceedings ended during the sentencing phase March 5, 2020, when a witness jumped from the witness stand box and attempted to attack Torres. A Benton County sheriff’s deputy and a bailiff stopped the witness from reaching Torres. Karren declared a mistrial and ruled Torres should have another trial. The Arkansas attorney general’s office appealed Karren’s decision, but the Arkansas Supreme Court agreed with Karren.
Karren issued a gag order prohibiting the attorneys from publicly commenting on the case.
Prosecutors presented evidence in the previous trials showing the boy was repeatedly abused. During both of Torres’ first two trials, a medical examiner testified the boy’s death was caused by a bacterial infection resulting from sodomy and chronic child abuse.
Cathy Torres, Mauricio Torres’ wife, pleaded guilty in 2016 to capital murder and battery and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She testified during Torres’ second trial and blamed her husband for abusing their son. She is on the witness list for the third trial.
The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
Karren instructed the two jurors to report back at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 10.
Tracy M. Neal can be reached by email at [email protected] or Twitter @NWATracy.
Mauricio Torres walks through the halls Thursday Feb. 2, 2023 of the Benton County Courthouse. Torres is facing capital murder and battery charges. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/TRACY NEAL)