Jury Selection To Begin In Slaying Of Marietta Couple

MARIETTA, Okla. (AP) _ Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the first-degree murder trial of a man accused of stabbing an elderly couple to death as they slept. <br/><br/>Maurice Landon Miller,

Sunday, June 18th 2006, 6:14 pm

By: News On 6

MARIETTA, Okla. (AP) _ Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the first-degree murder trial of a man accused of stabbing an elderly couple to death as they slept.

Maurice Landon Miller, 28, was brought back to Love County from Louisiana earlier this month to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder in the Dec. 6, 1994, deaths of James and Lena West at their Marietta home.

Miller is serving time in Louisiana on a separate conviction. He has pleaded innocent.

Court Clerk Kim Jackson said summonses were issued to 150 prospective jurors. Court officials expect jury selection to take most of the day Monday and possibly extend into Tuesday.

Among 60 endorsed witnesses is Tina Mosley, a former girlfriend of Miller who was arrested after she failed to appear at preliminary hearings in the case. Associate District Judge Charles Roberts dismissed the charges against Miller last November after Mosley failed to appear.

A warrant was then issued for Mosley's arrest, and Miller in December was ordered to stand trial after a preliminary hearing featuring testimony on circumstantial evidence from expert witnesses.

After the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation offered a reward, an anonymous phone tip helped the OSBI arrest Mosley as a material witness Jan. 20 in Oklahoma City. She was returned to Love County and ordered held without bond pending Miller's trial.

Mosley has not been implicated in the slayings.

Mosley has been accumulating a witness fee of $10 for each day she is held in jail. Court officials said that fee will total $1,500 by Monday.

Another defendant, Billy Wayne Henderson, was initially implicated with Miller in a robbery-murder complaint stemming from the incident at the West home. Henderson died about a year after the slayings.

District Attorney Craig Ladd and Assistant District Attorney Gary Brown will handle the prosecution.