A jury of 12 is now set for the start of a much anticipated Blair County murder trial.
\nBeginning Tuesday, Nathan Shaw of Tyrone will face charges of capital murder, rape, aggravated assault and other offenses, just over a year after young Jared Klein was found dead in the living room of the apartment he shared with his mother and infant sister.
\nIf convicted, Shaw, 27, could face lethal injection as prosecutors have indicated they will seek the death penalty.
\nThe 12 primary members of the Shaw jury were selected last week \u2013 a process that wrapped Friday \u2013 in proceedings overseen by Blair County Judge Daniel J. Milliron. Five alternates were approved during a special meeting held Saturday. Close to 100 prospective jurors were interviewed during the week-long session.
\nShaw is being tried for the brutal beating and stabbing death of 6-year-old Klein the day after Christmas 2005. Klein\u2019s mother, who was Shaw\u2019s estranged girlfriend, was also attacked that night, badly beaten and raped.
\nShaw is the sole suspect in the case, as Klein\u2019s mother immediately identified him as the person who entered her home Dec. 26, 2005, then attacked her and her son. She told Tyrone police officers that night that Shaw came to the residence, beat her and her son, then took her upstairs to bind and rape her.
\nAccording to the woman, Shaw exited the apartment after the attack, then stole her car in order to make his getaway. When she freed herself and made her way downstairs, she discovered the lifeless body of her young son lying in a pool of blood with a knife protruding from his neck.
\nShe then went to a neighbor\u2019s house for assistance. The neighbor told police the night of the attacks that the woman was so badly beaten they didn\u2019t recognize her right away.
\nShaw was apprehended days later after he led Oklahoma authorities in a high speed chase that ended in a fiery crash. Shaw was driving the woman\u2019s stolen Nissan. Judge Milliron, along with attorneys involved in the case, decided over the weekend on which crime scene photos would be admitted as evidence in the trial expected to last at least through the end of this week. Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio produced roughly 60 crime scene and autopsy photos of Klein, images defense attorneys would like to keep from the jurors.
\nJury selection began last Monday and those proceedings got under way in front of a \u201cpacked house\u201d. Nearly 280 onlookers filed into the Hollidaysburg courtroom for the first day of jury selection, many of whom were family, friends and supporters of the family.
\nShaw is being represented by Blair County Assistant Public Defender Theodore Krol and attorneys Steven Passarello and John Siford. Consiglio will lead the prosecution team with assistance from attorneys Douglas Keating and Deanne Paul of the county DA\u2019s office.
\nAlthough the murder case against Shaw is circumstantial, due to the fact that there were no eyewitnesses to Klein\u2019s death, Consiglio said he feels strongly about the case.
\nConsiglio was the last to successfully argue a death penalty case in Blair County seven years ago when convicted murderer and Altoona resident William Wright was sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of James Mowery.
\nThe prosecution\u2019s list of potential witnesses includes the boy\u2019s mother, seven Tyrone police officers, including Tyrone Chief Joe Beachem, five state police troopers, one Oklahoma police officer, crime lab technicians, a pathologist, Altoona police and hospital officials and the Blair County 911 center director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A jury of 12 is now set for the start of a much anticipated Blair County murder trial. Beginning Tuesday, Nathan Shaw of Tyrone will face charges of capital murder, rape, aggravated assault and other offenses, just over a year after young Jared Klein was found dead in the living room of the apartment he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}