Shooting murder trial next week

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Press Photo by Ashley Martin Michael Reisenauer makes an appearance Monday at the Stark County Courthouse in Dickinson.

Talk about it

Selecting a jury for a Dickinson man’s murder trial may be an issue, his attorney Kevin McCabe said Monday morning at the Stark County Courthouse during Michael Reisenauer’s pretrial conference.

Reisenauer is accused of shooting 19-year-old Kyle Goodbird in the chest on July 25, according to a Stark County criminal complaint. The incident, which occurred at a Dickinson residence on Meadows Drive, resulted in Goodbird’s death.

Reisenauer’s trial begins next Monday.

McCabe, Reisenauer’s attorney, expects it will take days to select a jury. It will be difficult to find potential jurors who haven’t already formed an opinion on the case because it’s a small community and this is a high-profile case, he said.

“You just never know until you start picking your jury and start asking them questions,” McCabe said.

It may take time, but it is possible, Stark County Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Hope said.

“The real difficult time is estimating the jury selection,” he said at the hearing.

He expects about 35 witnesses and depending on their testimony, McCabe said he may call several more.

Since it is uncertain how long it will take to pick jurors, it is hard to accurately schedule times for witness testimony, Hope said.

“The potential of witnesses being called out of order is extremely high,” he said.

However, he said it is unlikely the trial will be postponed or moved out of the county.

Witnesses told authorities Goodbird was pointing the rifle at people and pulling the trigger of the unloaded weapon inside the residence before Reisenauer shot him, authorities said at an October hearing.

Authorities say Reisenauer got the weapon away from Goodbird and allegedly told him to leave the residence, but Goodbird refused. Reisenauer then allegedly counted down and shot him.

“At the time of the shooting, there were four people in that apartment,” Hope said.

Hope plans to use a 911 phone call and videos of Reisenauer before and during interrogation as evidence. His glasses also may be used but Hope would not say why.

Hope and McCabe plan to bring jurors to the residence where the shooting took place.

“It really does make things a lot more understandable,” Hope said.

Weir said special instructions would have to be outlined before jurors would be allowed to view the apartment.

“I want to be very sure that the jury is not exposed to something during the visit that would run this trial off the tracks,” Weir said.

Tags: news, crime, local, murder