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Jury Selection Begins In Rolando Stepfather Murder Trial
March 16, 2009SAN DIEGO -- Jury selection began Monday for the trial of a 19-year-old woman charged with murder in the shooting death nearly two years ago of her stepfather in his Rolando home.
Brae Hansen is accused in the July 19, 2007, killing of Timothy MacNeil, a criminal defense attorney.
Jury selection is expected to continue through Wednesday. On that day, jury selection could begin for a separate panel to hear the retrial of Hansen's brother, 20-year-old Nathaniel Gann, who faces the same charges as his sister.
Opening statements are expected next Monday.
A jury last year deadlocked 7-5 in favor of guilt in Gann's first trial. His attorney, Ricardo Garcia, blamed MacNeil's murder on Hansen.
Garcia alleged Hansen wanted to hurt her stepfather because she felt rejected by him and wanted jewelry and other things she felt she deserved after her mother, Doreen, committed suicide a year earlier.
Hansen and Gann are biological siblings. Gann kept the name of his biological father, Mark Gann. His younger sister kept her mother's maiden name.
Doreen Hansen was MacNeil's second wife.
Hansen told police she planned MacNeil's murder with Gann and agreed to give him 15 percent of any inheritance she received, but later tried to stop her brother from killing the victim.
Deputy District Attorney George Bennett told the jury that both siblings were guilty of murder. Bennett said Hansen wanted her stepfather dead and called Gann in Arizona to help.
The prosecutor said Gann -- dressed in all black -- shot MacNeil four times, then tied up Hansen to make it look like a robbery carried out by a masked intruder.
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