Outside jury to hear MTSU player's murder trial

Saturday, February 25, 2012

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - A Rutherford County judge has decided to bring in a jury from another county in the trial of a woman accused of fatally stabbing a Middle Tennessee basketball player last year.

Judge Don Ash said in an order Friday that he would decide by April 15 where the jury would be selected from after a defense attorney for 19-year-old Shanterrica Madden argued for a change of venue, The Daily News Journal reported (http://on.dnj.com/x6VI70 ).

Madden is accused of first-degree murder in the death of her roommate, 21-year-old Tina Stewart, a member of the Lady Raiders basketball team. Madden is scheduled to go on trial in May in Rutherford County.

Defense attorney Joe Brandon Jr. requested a change of venue and asked the judge to recuse himself because of his support of the university, but Ash refused to recuse himself. He said in his order that he would submit subsequent orders by April 15 detailing the procedure for jury selection and the county where they would be chosen.

Madden's attorney also filed a lawsuit this week against a Murfreesboro apartment building for failing to separate the two women prior to the killing. The lawsuit filed by Brandon named Raiders Crossing Apartment and its management company as contributing to the incident that led to Stewart's death in March 2011.

The lawsuit claims both Madden and her mother had requested that the apartment complex find a new apartment for Madden or Stewart because the two women weren't getting along.

The apartment complex is also named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Madden by Stewart's family.