BUTLER COUNTY — UPDATE @ 1 p.m.:
Jury selection for the murder trial of Bradley Young focused this morning on media coverage of the toddler's death.
At least two prospective jurors said they had made up their mind about Young’s guilt based on media coverage.
Judge Keith Spaeth told prospective jurors that just because they may have read or heard something about the case did not automatically disqualify them.
Most of the potential jurors said they could set aside what they have read or heard about the case.
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“You decide this case only on what comes out in the courtroom,” Butler County Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Heile told prospective jurors.
One potential juror told lawyers “it might make me physically ill” to see autopsy photos of Kinsley Kinner.
Before a lunch break, Heile reminded jurors that they could not search the Internet for any information about the case or do any outside investigation of their own.
INITIAL REPORT:
Jury selection is underway for the trial of Bradley Young, who is charged with murder, felony endangering children and involuntary manslaughter in the death of 3-year-old Kinsley Kinner last December.
Young entered the Butler County courtroom this morning clutching a Bible.
Seventy potential jurors were summoned for the trial, but only 42 showed up for jury selection.
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MORE: The latest updates from the courtroom
In addition to a number medical witnesses, investigators and detectives expected to take the stand in the case against Bradley Young, Rebekah Kinner, Kinsley's mother, is expected to testify. To take the stand, Kinner will be transported from prison, where she is serving an 11-year sentence after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, permitting child abuse and endangering children in the death Kinsley.
Young’s trial is anticipated to last seven to 10 days.
Kinsley died Dec. 3 after suffering a fatal beating at her Madison Twp. home, allegedly at the hands of Young.
In a 911 call, Kinner told county dispatchers: “My daughter, she is coming in and out of consciousness, and she is not breathing right now.”
On the recording, dispatchers are heard talking a man through how to administer CPR to the little girl. Kinner, who was crying, said, “She went to bed and she woke up screaming at the top of her lungs twice, and now we can’t get her to wake up.”
During questioning, Kinner told detectives she saw Young shake and punch her daughter the night before she was found unresponsive.
Kinner, who was pregnant at the time of her daughter’s death, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for not stopping the abuse of her daughter.
At her sentencing, Kinner’s defense attorney, Kyle Rapier, said she was “brutally” raped at age 13 and suffers from PTSD and other disorders as a result.
“ … part of the reason she failed to protect her daughter and herself is because of some of her experiences in her life,” Rapier said.
