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Jury Selection Begins In Alex Midyette's Trial

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Jan 12, 2009 9:01 pm US/Mountain

Jury Selection Begins In Alex Midyette's Trial

Reporting
Raj Chohan
DENVER (CBS4/AP) ― Jury selection is under way in Denver in the trial of man accused of fatally injuring his infant son.

Prosecutors will be able to tell jurors of allegations that Alex Midyette, 29, kicked his wife in the stomach when she was pregnant, a judge has ruled.

Boulder County District Judge Lael Montgomery also ruled last week that jurors could hear allegations that Midyette used cocaine and that he viewed pornography hours before bringing his 11-week-old son, Jason, to a hospital in 2006, according to a hearing transcript released Friday.

Midyette's attorney, Paul McCormick, argued that there is no evidence that his client was under the influence when he cared for his son and that allegations of drug use are irrelevant, according to the transcript.

Prosecutor Ken Kupfner argued that the claims of kicking could show a pattern of abuse, that the drug claim could shed light on Midyette's ability to interact with his son, and the porn claim could show state of mind.

Midyette's child abuse trial was moved to Denver after Midyette's lawyers said pretrial media coverage had tainted the jury pool in Boulder. The trail initially got moved from Boulder to Jefferson County, but the docket there was too full. So the judge made the decision to bring the trial to Denver even though Denver is in the same media market as Boulder. A change of venue does not require moving the trial to a place that local media doesn't reach.

Jason died days after his parents took him to a hospital. Doctors said he had broken bones and a skull fracture. Midyette contends his son wasn't abused but suffered from a rare metabolic condition.

Midyette's wife, Molly Midyette, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Prosecutors said she didn't seek help for her son in time.

After her conviction Alex Midyette's temper exploded in the courtroom as he yelled at prosecutors before storming out.

The slow process of seating a jury is expected to continue well into Wednesday.

The trial is expected to last about four weeks. Molly Midyette is among the witnesses expected to testify against her husband.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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