Jury selection begins in Haleigh Poutre case

October 29, 2008 03:01 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff

SPRINGFIELD -- Jury selection began today in the trial of the stepfather of 14-year-old Haleigh Poutre, the brain-damaged girl who nearly died from an alleged beating in her Westfield home. The case attracted nationwide publicity when the state came close to pulling Haleigh's life support.

Haleigh Poutre

Hampden County Superior Court Judge Judd Carhart is expected to spend at least two days impaneling a 12-member jury that will hear evidence in the child abuse case against Jason Strickland.

By early this afternoon, the judge had already excused more than five dozen jurors who said they could not be impartial because, among other reasons, they had made up their mind against Strickland based on the intense media coverage. Other potential jurors were dismissed because they said they could be swayed against the defendant based on the graphic, violent nature of the injuries against a child. Numerous jurors were also excused when they said that the anticipated length of the trial -- between two to three weeks -- would cause them to miss too much work or interrupt existing important plans.

The judge said he expects opening statements in the case to begin Monday at the earliest, and evidence in the days ahead is expected to come from, among others, law enforcement officials, doctors, psychiatrists, relatives, social workers, teachers, and neighbors.

Dressed in a blue blazer and tie, Strickland, a 34-year-old auto mechanic, watched intently as prospective jurors answered questions from the judge. He is accused of participating, along with his wife, Holli Strickland, in a pattern of violent child abuse against Haleigh, culminating in her traumatic head injures that left her unconscious in September 2005. Prosecutors acknowledge that Strickland's wife, who had adopted Haleigh, was the major caretaker of the girl; however they say that Jason had a role in -- or at least was aware of -- the brutal treatment that the girl had received.

Defense attorneys are expected to depict the stepfather as a hard-working breadwinner of the family who kept a distance from the day-to-day running of the home. His attorneys have said that Strickland had long believed his wife's account -- backed by numerous doctors and therapists -- that Haleigh's many bruises and cuts were from a psychological disorder causing her to hurt herself.

The stepfather alone faces charges in this criminal trial, however, because Holli Strickland died in an apparent murder-suicide with her grandmother shortly after being accused of abusing Haleigh. Details of those deaths, which have remained sealed, may emerge during the trial.

Haleigh, who now lives in a rehabilitation facility in Brighton, has now recovered to the point where she can speak simple sentences and attends a day school. Prosecutors, who had originally said they wanted to call her as a witness, have since changed their minds. Meanwhile, defense attorneys decline to say whether they will call her to testify. The judge has said, if Haleigh is called, he will convene a special hearing to determine her competency.

The only other child who may take the witness stand is Samantha Poutre, 12, who was Holli Strickland's biological daughter and shared a room with Haleigh. Her statements to police have changed over the past few years. She once insisted that Haleigh's head injuries were caused by a back flip in the basement gone awry. Now, according to sources familiar with her updated testimony to police, she is expected to implicate Jason and Holli Strickland in Haleigh's traumatic brain damage.