Posted at: 11/09/2009 3:26 PM | WHEC.com
Updated at: 11/09/2009 7:09 PM
By: Berkeley Brean

Garcia waves to his future jurors

Convicted killer Frank Garcia turned and waved to his prospective jurors in court at the beginning of his Monroe County murder trial.

It happened as Judge Frank Geraci introduced the prosecution and defense teams to the 125 people in the jury pool sitting in the courtroom. Judge Geraci then introduced "the defendant, Frank Garcia." That's when Garcia got up halfway from his chair, turned to the people, smiled at them and waved.

Garcia is accused of killing Randal Norman and Mary Silliman in the parking lot of Lakeside Hospital in Brockport. They are two of the four people police say Garcia killed on Valentine's Day. Garcia is already serving a life sentence without parole for the execution-style murders of Kimberly and Christopher Glatz inside their home in Canandaigua.

When the case began in court, Judge Geraci asked the prospective jurors if they had either seen or heard something about the case. Every single hand went up in the air. By mid-afternoon, the judge and lawyers questioned around 20 people individually. All but five were dismissed. They five only passed to return to the jury pool for more questioning.

"They couldn't set aside what happened in Ontario County," defense lawyer Joe Damelio said. "What people said in Ontario County. What the conviction was in Ontario County. So that certainly is coming into play."

"There's not a requirement that a juror has not heard anything about the case and so that's not unusual," Doug Randall, Assistant District Attorney said. "It's not any different from the other cases that the office or I have tried over the past few years."

Judge Frank Geraci has ruled that TV cameras will be allowed in the courtroom for this trial, as they were in Ontario County.

News 10NBC will be rolling on opening statements and closing arguments as well as the verdict.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, no jurors have been seated.

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