Published: October 04, 2009 10:49 pm      

Jury process starts today in trial

The process of selecting a jury in the trial of a Texas Department of Criminal Justice offender charged with murdering a Huntsville TDCJ officer in September 2007 begins today in Centerville.

Jerry Duane Martin, 39, will be tried in Leon County in the death of Susan Canfield, a TDCJ officer who was killed when Martin and fellow inmate John Ray Falk Jr., 41, escaped from the Wynne Unit off Farm-to-Market Road 2821 on Sept. 24, 2007.

State District Court Judge Kenneth Keeling of the 278th Judicial District will try the case.

Falk’s trial has not been scheduled.

Walker County Criminal District Attorney David Weeks said Martin’s trial is being held in Leon County due to complications involving other sites.

“We will be bringing in the intitial panel for the trial,” Weeks said as proceedings start at 9 a.m. today. “The judge will qualify them and we will provide a quetionnaire they will fill out.

“Then both sides will have Tuesday to look at the questionnaire and then we will star talking to the jurors individually, which is the process in a death penalty trial.”

Weeks said they expect to talk to seven jurors a day, “which is “a pretty long process.”

He said 350 people have been summoned in Leon County.

He expects the jury selection to take at least three to four weeks.

“We will qualify close to 50 people,” he said. “Once we have that many people, we will go through the list starting with the first juror.

“The prosecution gets to accept or reject. If we accept, then the choice goes to the defense. We each get 15 preemptor strikes we can use anyway we want.

“As we go through the process, we will certainly pick alternates, but we haven’t decided how many at this point. We will use the preemptor to go through that process and that is when the jury will be finalized.”

Weeks said he expects the trial to last throught the end of November and maybe into December.

“It’s hard to tell with the jury selection,” he said. “We hope to cut down the number of evidence and witnesses.”

Weeks previously said tthe principal question is whether or not Canfield’s death qualifies as capital murder.

“This is a difficult case,” Weeks said. “The situation is very unique because Ms. Canfield died as the result of being thrown off a horse, so there are issues there that are different than most.

“I feel very confident, but it’s going to be up to the jury. I believe it’s capital murder, but the jury’s going to have the final word on that.”

Weeks said that if Martin is found guilty, jurors will have the option of recommending the death penalty.

Martin and Falk were indicted in March 2008 in the murder of Canfield.

The charge was elevated to capital murder due to provisions in the Texas State Penal Code that allow a murder to be upgraded to capital if it occurs during an attempted escape from a penal institution.

The two men were working outside the Wynne Unit when Martin approached an officer and asked him to hold his broken watch.

As the officer reached for the watch, Falk distracted him with a sound, allowing Martin to grab the officer’s weapon.

Using the weapon to hold off nearby officers, the two offenders were able to scale a barbed-wire fence. After stealing a second weapon at gunpoint and exchanging fire with several nearby officers, they were able to commandeer a City of Huntsville truck.

While escaping, they rammed Canfield.

Canfield, who was on horseback, was thrown from her horse and was killed due to head injuries sustained when she struck the windshield of the truck and the ground. Her horse was later euthanized due to wounds from the collision and gunfire.

According to TDCJ reports following the incident, Martin was the driver of the vehicle when it struck Canfield.

Martin and Falk later dumped the truck a mile away and hijacked a motorist — Madilene Loosier — who was in line at a nearby bank drive-through.

Officers from several local agencies were able to shoot out the tires of the hijacked vehicle, leaving Martin and Falk to continue to flee on foot.

Falk was apprehended within an hour after the escape, while Martin was found hiding in a tree approximately three and a half hours later.

At the time of their escape, Martin was in the 1oth year of a 50-year term for attempted murder, while Falk was serving a life sentence for a 1986 murder.

Item reporter Matthew Jackson contributed to this story.