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Teacher asked about views in jury selection

This story originally appeared February 2, 2007

By JESSICA LOGAN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: jlogan@bakersfield.com | Friday, Feb 16 2007 12:47 PM

Last Updated: Friday, Feb 16 2007 12:47 PM

A teacher who briefly worked with former Vice Principal Vincent Brothers was found able Thursday to possibly sit as a juror in his upcoming trial.

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Brothers could face the death penalty if he is convicted of killing his wife, three children and mother-in-law. Brothers has pleaded not guilty.

The teacher, now a resource specialist, said she worked with Brothers briefly more than 10 years ago, but she only had fleeting contact with him and could not remember what position he held at the time.

But Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green pressed the woman, who said she was uneasy with the idea of sentencing someone to death.

"Do you really think you could return a verdict (of death) in a case where you know this man?" Green asked.

The woman said she could, saying she only knew Brothers as well as she would a clerk in a grocery store.

The prosecutor retorted that she would not want to put a clerk she knew from a grocery store to death.

But the woman held firm that she would be able to vote for death if that is what the evidence called for and she was allowed to remain in the jury pool.

As jury selection continues, more people with ties to the main players in the case have been found qualified to sit as jurors. On Wednesday, a Bakersfield police dispatcher was also approved to sit on the jury even though the detectives from that agency investigated the Brothers case.

Juror names will not be released.

So far about 40 jurors have been found who could sit on the case. The judge said he needs 70 to 90 to move on to the final phase of jury selection.

Brothers, a former vice principal, is accused of killing his wife, Joanie Harper; their three children, Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall; and Joanie Harper's mother, Earnestine.

His family was found dead on July 8, 2003, and he was arrested in April 2004 on suspicion of committing the killings.

Jury selection will continue today.