Chattanooga attorneys picked jurors Friday in Clarksville, Tenn., for the trial of a 25-year-old school bus driver charged with killing six children in a 2016 Talley Road crash.
Johnthony Walker will stand trial Tuesday in Hamilton County Criminal Court in connection with the Nov. 21, 2016, wreck that involved 37 Woodmore Elementary School students on his bus. He faces 34 charges, including one count of use of a portable electronic device by a school driver, six counts of vehicular homicide, seven counts of assault, 18 counts of reckless aggravated assault, one count of reckless endangerment and one count of reckless driving.
Attorneys picked out-of-town jurors in Clarksville because they agreed Chattanoogans might be biased because of heavy local media attention on the case. They started with roughly 250 potential jurors before court officials whittled that number down to 97. From there, jurors answered 46 questions related to the case, such as whether they had ever driven a bus.
Attorneys finished picking a jury around 5 p.m. Central time. They will be transported to Hamilton County before the trial and remain sequestered throughout the week.
Prosecutors said Walker was speeding on the narrow road in Brainerd when he lost control of bus 366 and ultimately crashed into a walnut tree. Though he had no drugs or alcohol in his system, prosecutors said cellular data shows Walker received a phone call at the time of the crash.