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OGDEN — A Utah man accused of killing his 16-year-old baby-sitter appeared in court Tuesday morning for a status conference where his attorney raised concerns about the jury selection process.
Eric Millerberg stood with a straight face before the judge as his defense attorney voiced his biggest concern for the upcoming trial — the jury selection.
During the status conference Tuesday, Second District Court Judge Scott M. Hadley decided they would pick eight jurors from a pool of 100 people during the selection. Hadley also approved the eligible jurors go through an in-depth questionnaire before they officially take their seat in the courtroom.
"We want to make sure that we have an impartial jury that we have enough people that can come in and fairly hear the case," said prosecutor Dee Smith. "So it was really addressing jury selection and how many potential jurors we're going to need."
Millerberg is charged with child abuse homicide, obstruction of justice, and unlawful sexual activity with a minor. He's suspected of injecting 16-year-old Alexis Rasmussen with meth and heroin on the night she died. Her death was ruled an overdose.
Charging documents then say Millerberg and his wife, Dea dumped Rasmussen' body in a remote area of Morgan County.
Hadley set Jan. 10 as the cut off date for the defense and prosecution to file any and all motions.
"We just want to make sure that all the issues that need to be litigated before pretrial are litigated, and that we don't have any motions filed the eve of trial when we don't have the chance to properly research them and make our arguments before the courts," Smith said.
Millerberg, his attorney, the prosecution and Hadley will all meet again before the jury selection begins on Jan 7. The trial for the Millerberg case is expected to start Feb. 10.
