CONWAY -- Two more jurors -- for a total of 11 -- were chosen by the end of the fourth day of jury selection on Thursday in the capital-murder case of a Pine Bluff man accused of kidnapping and killing a Wooster woman while she was shopping in Conway.
The death-penalty trial of 20-year-old Tacori Mackrell in the 2018 killing of Elvia Fragstein, 72, is expected to begin Wednesday.
Five more potential jurors are scheduled to appear today in the courtroom of Faulkner County Circuit Judge Troy Braswell Jr. for screening by the prosecution and defense lawyers.
More will be called in for Monday and Tuesday until 17 jurors -- 12 primary and five alternates -- are selected, Braswell said.
The extra alternates are needed because the trial is expected to last until Oct. 16 and the chance of jurors getting sick and having to bow out during trial is heightened by the coronavirus pandemic, said Mackrell's defense attorney Jeff Rosenzweig.
On Thursday, mask-wearing jurors were escorted into the courtroom four at a time and instructed to sit in the seats marked with pink notes to indicate a 6-foot separation. Court employees sat behind clear plastic-glass screens.
The line of questioning from the defense and the prosecution to the potential jurors mostly centered on the death penalty.
"All we want is no more death in this case," defense attorney William "Bill" James Jr. said in an interview outside the courtroom.
James asked potential jurors whether they would fully consider "mitigating circumstances" -- outside reasons that would cause someone to commit a crime -- during the sentencing phase if Mackrell is convicted.
Mackrell was 18 when he and his cousin Robert Smith III, who was 16 at the time, were arrested and charged with capital murder, kidnapping, robbery, and theft of property in Fragstein's slaying.
Police believe Fragstein had been shopping at the Conway Commons Shopping Center on July 7, 2018 when she was abducted.
Fragstein is seen on security camera footage leaving a store, and another security camera shows her vehicle driving erratically across the parking lot.
Smith and Mackrell also are seen on video footage walking around the shopping center, according to the prosecution.
Fragstein's body was found four days later on a rural road near Pine Bluff.
An autopsy revealed that Fragstein suffered broken ribs, a fractured cervical vertebra and a crushed throat.
Officers arrested Smith and Mackrell on July 16, and a day later Fragstein's vehicle was found abandoned and destroyed by fire in a grassy area in Jefferson County, more than 80 miles from where Fragstein had last been seen.
Prosecuting Attorney Carol Crews said previously that Fragstein's blood was found on Smith's shoes, which his mother identified as the ones he was wearing when she drove him and Mackrell to Conway.
Smith is charged as an adult but is exempt from the death penalty because he was under 18 at the time he is suspected of committing the crime. He is awaiting trial.
Mackrell and Smith's cases were separated in the fall of 2018 after Smith's defense attorney argued that Mackrell had implicated himself, Smith and a third person in the crime.
According to the affidavit, Mackrell -- who earlier had denied being in Conway on the day of Fragstein's abduction -- told officers on July 16 that he and Smith had been there on July 7 "when an unknown Caucasian male with a .357 caliber revolver pointed out Mrs. Fragstein and instructed them to take her."
Mackrell first told police that Fragstein got into the driver's side of her vehicle, a 2013 Silver Honda CRV, and that he got into the back seat, the affidavit says. Mackrell indicated that Smith also got into the vehicle and soon drove off. Mackrell's account of what happened, though, changed as the interview with police proceeded, the affidavit says.
Mackrell sat at the end of the defense table Thursday, dressed in a crisp light blue dress shirt, a brown checkered tie and khaki slacks. He mostly wrote on a pad of paper for the eight hours in court. On a couple of occasions, he smiled and laughed as he spoke to a member of the defense team.
Senior deputy prosecutor John Hout told the potential jurors that the selection process was a "very serious matter" and they needed jurors who reflected that fact.
"As a juror, your job is to receive the facts," Hout said.
Over the four days, 49 potential jurors had been considered.
Rosenzweig said in an interview outside the court room that he was happy with the progress so far.
"We are taking great care in jury selection to seat the best and most appropriate jury and that takes a while," he said.
Braswell told the legal teams that he plans to give them a "day off" in between final jury selection and the beginning of the trial.
The trial will be held on the fourth floor in a much larger courtroom to accommodate the need for social distancing, Braswell said afterward.
The jury box will hold only about six jurors spaced 6 feet apart, three more jurors will be seated in chairs directly in front of the jury box and the remaining jurors and alternates will be behind temporary cubicle walls in the first four rows normally reserved for spectators.
"The court is making the appropriate accommodations so social distancing can be maintained," Braswell said. "We want it to be a safe place for folks to be."