SMETHPORT — Five McKean County jurors were picked by lunchtime Monday in the homicide trial of Bradford businessman Stephen Stidd.
Jury selection began this morning in McKean County Court.
Stidd, 65, is accused of shooting his former son-in-law, Melvin Bizzarro, on Jan. 16, 2015, behind Togi’s Restaurant. Stidd’s attorneys, Greg Henry and James P. Miller, have maintained the shooting was in self defense.
L. Todd Goodwin and Bobbi Jo Wagner, attorneys with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, are prosecuting the case.
By the time Senior Judge John Cleland allowed the group to break for lunch, 30 people had been questioned, with many potential jurors excused for various reasons.
A couple were excused for medical reasons, a couple due to financial hardship, one for friendship with the Stidd family, one for being a relative of the Stidd family and several for having fixed opinions about the case.
Court officials do not anticipate testimony to begin until tomorrow.
