Previous Story
Opening statements today in Crisostomo’s trial
8 jurors are impaneled
Joseph A. Crisostomo is escorted by a Corrections officer during a break in yesterday?s jury selection in Superior Court. Crisostomo is on trial for the kidnapping and killing of bartender Emerita Romero in February 2012. (Ferdie dela Torre)
The jury is composed of six females and two males.
The prosecution and defense counsel will present their opening statements at 8:30am today, Tuesday.
When Saipan Tribune left the courtroom at 5:10pm yesterday, Camacho was still giving the jury instructions.
Interim chief prosecutor Brian Flaherty and assistant attorney general Margo Brown-Badawy are prosecuting the case. Defense attorney Janet H. King is counsel for the 40-year-old Crisostomo.
Camacho’s courtroom was jampacked yesterday as 138 out of 156 prospective jurors who were served with summons showed up at the jury selections.
Camacho issued arrest warrants against nine persons who did not show up. He excused the rest.
The prosecution is expected to file a third amended information today that will remove the theft charge.
This developed as the CNMI Supreme Court issued an opinion last Friday in a separate case, ruling that theft is a lesser included offense of robbery.
With the dismissal of theft, Crisostomo’s remaining charges are first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault in the first degree, robbery, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.
Romero reportedly got on a car that she mistook for a taxicab near her house in Garapan on Feb. 5, 2012. Two days later, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents found her body at the former La Fiesta Mall in San Roque/As Matuis.
