Jury chosen for Bushaw murder trial; opening statements Monday

At the King County Courthouse downtown, we’ve just left the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque, where jury selection is now complete for the trial of Brandon Chaney and Bryce Huber, after prospective jurors went through almost two full days of questioning. Eight women and six men comprise the fourteen-juror panel (12 jurors and two alternates) who remained in the courtroom after the rest were dismissed. Huber and Chaney are on trial for the February 2009 West Seattle shooting death of 26-year-old Steve Bushaw; two others, Danny O’Neal and John Sylve, have pleaded guilty. The trial is now in recess until 9 am Monday, when prosecutor Jeff Baird and defense lawyers Tony Savage (for Huber) and Jim Roe (for Chaney) are scheduled to begin opening statements.

MONDAY MIDDAY NOTE: Opening statements haven’t started, after all – one of the jurors had to be excused from the case, and they are going through a new pool of jurors to select a replacement. That’s expected to take the rest of the day.

Brendan J. July 28, 2011 (7:46 pm)

Thank you WSB for keeping us informed on this and please continue to do so. This has affected West Seattle in a major way and people need to be informed and you’ve done just that thus far. Keep it up and thanks.

WSB July 28, 2011 (9:49 pm)

Brendan – we intend to have someone (mostly me, but I have some excellent backup too) in court every day unless something MASSIVE happens to keep us away. This to my recollection is the first murder trial involving a West Seattle case since the 2007 Upper Alki shooting trial we covered in 2008 (and WSB was at that one gavel-to-gavel too) … TR