Involuntary Manslaughter Trial- Day 1

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Story Published: May 20, 2008 at 6:08 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 8:28 PM MST

By Araksya Karapetyan

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The jury trial for Chitta Lynch, the Shelley woman accused of shooting her sister last summer started this morning.
Jury selection took close to four hours. Every time it looked like the potential twelve jurors had been chosen, someone was excused.
Pre-trial media exposure was one of the issues.
It's expected to be a two day trial.
Both sides presented their opening arguments, and the prosecution already has rested its case.
The prosecution and defense, for the most part, agree on what happened on June 27, 2007.
They aren't disagreeing on the events that took place, what they are disputing is whether Lynch acted in a careless versus a reckless manner.
Those two words might not seem very different to the average person, but they are, especially when it comes to the law.
The defense says her actions where simply careless, basically that it was an accident, and that is not enough to convict her.
While the prosecution argues her actions were reckless, meaning there was a disregard for the consequence of others. In this case Lynch's sister Diane who died as a result of the gunshot wound.
One of Lynch's sisters, was the first witness to take the stand.
She doesn't speak every much English, and therefore had a Laotian translator present, and this did slow things down a bit.
She says she was near the house when the shot was fired, but didn't see it happen, she just heard the gun shot. Later she walked into the kitchen and saw their mother and Lynch pacing back and forth crying.
The trial is scheduled to last until tomorrow, but it could extend into Thursday.

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