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Crime and Courts
Jury selection begins in Brett Seacat’s murder trial in Kingman

Jury selection resumes Tuesday morning in the first-degree murder trial of Brett Seacat, a former law enforcement officer and police instructor accused of killing his wife and setting fire to the couple’s Kingman home more than two years ago.

Thirty-one people – more than half needed to begin the trial – were added to a pool of prospective jurors Monday during the first two rounds of selection.

Final juror selection and opening statements may start Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning if enough people are qualified for the jury pool by midweek, said Kingman County District Court Judge Larry Solomon, who is presiding over the case. Fifty are needed for the jury pool; 12 jurors and three alternates will be chosen from that pool.

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Mon, 20 May 2013 17:50 CDT
A fire, a body, a murder trial in Kingman after more than two years

On Monday, two years and 20 days after Vashti Forrest Seacat’s body was found in the charred remains of her Kingman home, attorneys will start picking jurors who will be asked to decide between two arguments already raised in court:

That the 34-year-old woman’s husband, Brett Seacat, a law enforcement trainer and former Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy, shot and killed her and set fire to their home, or that she started the blaze and then shot herself.

Felicia Ryder, who organized a candlelight vigil to remember Vashti Seacat soon after the tragedy, said that Brett Seacat’s first-degree murder trial will offer closure for the town. The case has been weighing on people, and the big old house where it all happened – now vacant and boarded up – is part of that weight, Ryder said.

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Mon, 20 May 2013 17:50 CDT
Dead man proves to be key witness in murder trial

A Sedgwick County jury began deliberations Friday in a first-degree murder trial that started just six weeks after a key witness committed suicide.

But the testimony that the deceased witness gave at an earlier hearing proved to be some of the strongest evidence that prosecutors had in their case against Travis Knighten.

Knighten, 20, is charged in the May 7, 2011, shooting death of Mario Brown, 22, at an after-hours party in a parking lot at the southwest corner of 13th and Hillside.

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Fri, 17 May 2013 17:06 CDT
Last Refreshed 5/21/2013 5:16:10 AM