ATHENS, Tenn. -- Seven years after the body of his daughter was found in a pond, Mitchell Delashmitt went on trial Tuesday, accused of her rape and death.
Mr. Delashmitt faces charges of felony murder, aggravated child abuse and rape of a child. If convicted, he potentially faces the death sentence.
Angel Mae Delashmitt's body was found in Riceville on June 19, 2003. Mr. Delashmitt has said he was asleep when he was supposed to be watching the child and was awakened by a neighbor asking after the girl.
Opening arguments in the trial could start today after the completion of jury selection.
McMinn County Circuit Court Judge Carroll Ross presided over a slow jury selection process Tuesday. Potential jurors were interviewed individually in a room near the courtroom. The goal was to form a jury pool of 50 people from whom the trial jury and alternates will be picked.
Judge Ross told the potential jurors that the trial could take several days.
"But I have no way to measure certain things," he said, such as how long jury deliberation will take when the time comes to decide a verdict.
The child's mother, Rebecca Dunn Green, and grandmother were in the courtroom Tuesday. They said the child's tombstone does not carry the name Delashmitt. She forever will be Angel Mae Dunn, they said.
Also on Tuesday, McMinn Assistant District Attorney Jim Stutts named the state's chief prosecution witnesses, a list that includes Ronald Toolsie, the former Bradley County medical examiner whose autopsy in the Delashmitt case has been questioned by the state's chief medical examiner and a University of Tennessee pathologist.
Mr. Toolsie's state medical license was suspended last year, and he faces prescription drug charges in Hamilton County.
Mr. Delashmitt's attorney, John Eldridge, said he plans to call five witnesses.
Judge Ross dismissed Mr. Delashmitt's confession in 2007 after ruling that he was denied an attorney. Mr. Delashmitt had been in jail for about four years at the time.
The jury is not being sequestered.
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