Jury selected in ex-FBI agent's murder trial

(Wilfredo Lee/AP)

A former lawman in handcuffs -- Connolly at a hearing in Miami last week.

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

After four days of jury selection, a jury was chosen today in the Miami murder trial of retired FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr.

The panel of 12 jurors and four alternates is scheduled to hear opening statements Monday in the case of Connolly, who is accused of plotting with longtime FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi to kill Boston business consultant John B. Callahan in 1982.

The 68-year-old former agent is charged in state court with first-degree murder, which carries a life sentence, and conspiracy to commit murder, which carries up to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors allege that Connolly told Bulger and Flemmi that Callahan was a "weak link,'' who was being sought for questioning by the FBI and would likely implicate the gangsters in the 1981 slaying of a Tulsa businessman.

Jurors were told that the trial could take as long as two months. Connolly, once a star agent in the FBI's Boston office who was lauded for his ability to recruit informants, retired from the FBI in 1990 after 22 years.

Connolly, who maintains his innocence, has been in solitary confinement in a Miami jail since his murder indictment three years ago. He is currently serving a 10-year prison term for his 2002 federal racketeering conviction for protecting Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and warning Bulger to flee before his 1995 racketeering indictment.

Bulger, wanted for 19 murders, remains one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted fugitives and a $2 million reward is being offered for his capture.

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