A jury of 110 will be convened for the trial of a Bucyrus man charged with murder in the death of Sean Cassaro.
At Monday's pretrial hearing, Crawford County Chancery Court Judge Shane Leuthold said both the prosecution and defense agreed the number was large enough to seat 12 jurors. Ta.
On trial is Thomas Brown, formerly of South Sandusky Avenue in Bucyrus. He was charged in February last year with murder and manslaughter, both felonies.
Cassaro, 46, of Bucyrus, died after a fight at 515 Tiffin Street in the early morning hours of January 22, 2023, according to a statement from the Bucyrus Police Department. Cassaro was found face down in the driveway, unresponsive and pronounced dead by Bucyrus Fire/EMS, according to a police report.
Leutold also ruled that the witness the prosecution was seeking to call was a person with martial arts training.
Judges believe that expert opinions should be submitted by persons with specialized knowledge, skill, training or education, and should be based on scientific, technical or other specialized information. He said that.
Judgment appointing a martial artist as an expert witness
“That's why the court has a problem” with potential witnesses, Leuthold said. “This is a martial art, an artist, and a martial art, not a martial art.”
The judge said the purpose of expert witnesses is to assist the jury in decision-making, but the case was simple and concerned strangulation rather than martial arts techniques.
“I don't think a jiu-jitsu expert or a martial artist can say much enough to make a jury understand,” Leuthold said.
The judge also took issue with some of the contents of the martial arts report submitted by the prosecution, saying it appeared too general to be considered scientific.
“I don't think this is reliable scientific or technical information,” Leutold said.
The prosecution argued that witnesses should be allowed to testify as experts based on their methodological expertise and experience.
The judge said he would reconsider the report and cited another problem he identified in the report, which was that an expert was willing to testify about the defendant's knowledge at the time of the strangulation.
“I think this is an unscientific approach,” Leutold said. “At this point, we're going to rule it out again.”
He ruled that the witness would be excluded from testifying, but said prosecutors could revisit the issue at a later date.
The trial is scheduled to begin on May 20th.
This article was originally published on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: 110 Jury Pool Excluded as Witness in May Cassaro Murder Case
