CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
Jury selection began at the Will County courthouse Monday for the Drew Peterson murder trial.
By Monday night, five men and three women had been picked to be a part of the jury. Out of the eight people, five are married, two are divorced and one is single. The ages of the jurors range from the mid 20s to 60s. Jury selection should wrap up by Tuesday.
The only words that came out of Drew Peterson Monday were heard when the judge introduced all the potential players to the jury pool, who are a part of a field of possibilities.
Peterson, his trademark mustache shaved off, stood and spoke to some 40 potential jurors as proceedings began Monday.
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I'm Mr. Peterson," he said.
The judge said they'll be going until the end of the day to make sure they get through all 39 potential jurors.
"This is not CSI or some John Grisham novel," the judge said, admonishing the jurors. He went on to say "any expectations you have in that regard are to be left out of the courtroom."
The judge will see a total of about 200 potential jurors, in five groups of 40, each day this week.
During the morning session, five jurors were questioned by the judge, one at a time.
Peterson, a former Bolingbrook cop, is on trial for the murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio and a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy.
But prosecutors in the murder case said that the trial could be delayed again because of questions over whether or not jurors would be able to hear some hearsay statements. These statements would include testimony from his former wives, to effectively testify through friends and relatives about his threatening to kill them, without being in the courtroom.
But prosecutors maintain that they're necessary to get the whole story - particularly since Stacy Peterson has been missing since 2007. The 23-year-old's body has never been found, but authorities said they believe she's dead.
Defense attorneys said that the statements are unreliable. Such hearsay is usually barred. However, an appellate court ruled jurors can hear them.
However, Will County Judge Edward Burmila on Monday refused prosecutors' request to give them blanket approval to admit eight key hearsay statements. Burmila said he will make a final ruling on the admissibility of each statement only as they come up at trial.
Neither Burmila nor the attorneys spoke in any detail about the substance of the eight statements.
Atty. Joel Brodsky said the defense has a number of questions for potential jurors and they want to be very careful and deliberate so they can find a fair and impartial jury.
He said Drew is nervous about "the most important event in his lifetime."
Defense attorney Steve Greenberg is not worried that Drew's reputation will hurt his case, saying it should not be a factor.
"Jurors don't convict jerks," Greenberg said. "If there's 11 people who want to convict Drew because they don't like him, God help us."
Peterson, 58, is charged with killing Kathleen Savio in 2004. Her body was found in a dry bathtub in her home, her hair soaked with blood. Her drowning death had been ruled accidental, until Stacy Peterson went missing.
Savio's body was then exhumed, and the 40-year-old's death determined a homicide. Peterson was arrested and charged with her murder in 2009.
A judge will vet would-be jurors starting Monday. A 200-person jury has been waiting three years for a trial to get under way. It was put off because of appellate court battles over the Savio and Stacy Peterson statements.
"I've never heard of anything comparable to this -- a jury pool waiting around for so long knowing what case they're going to be in and the reliance on hearsay," said Gal Pissetzky, a Chicago defense lawyer with no link to the case. "It's all very unusual."
Peterson was nervous but confident as he prepared to stand trial, said his lead attorney, Joel Brodsky.
"It's probably the most important event in his life," the attorney said. "(But) Kathleen died in a household accident and there's nothing more than that."
Jurors are likely to hear from a parade of pathologists who will dispute each others' conclusions about how the 40-year-old Savio died. They will hear about her death being ruled an accident, her body being exhumed after 23-year-old Stacy Peterson's disappearance and the autopsy after which her cause of death was changed from accidental to homicide -- and the continued dispute over those findings.
There's apparently no physical evidence, so the hearsay is the heart of prosecutors' case.
The legal saga surrounding Peterson and whether he used his status as a police officer to try to get away with murder has attracted national attention. Rob Lowe portrayed Peterson in a 2011 TV movie, "Drew Peterson: Untouchable."
Vetting would-be jurors typically takes a few days, but extra time is sometimes required in high-profile cases to weed out those who come in with well-formed opinions. Opening statements at Peterson's trial in Joliet are slated for next Tuesday.
Some prospective jurors in the Drew Peterson murder trial have said they watched the cable TV movie about the case.
The potential jurors talked Monday during questioning about watching the film starring actor Rob Lowe as the former Bolingbrook police officer. But many said they understood it was Hollywood fiction. Peterson is charged in the 2004 death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007.
One potential juror who works as a plumber watched the movie and said it made Peterson look guilty of murder. But the possible juror also insisted he could separate the movie from evidence presented during trial.
The defense raised concern some prospective jurors may have violated orders to avoid all news about Peterson. One question Will County Judge Edward Burmila is likely to ask is whether they saw the movie.
Pissetzky wonders if those in the jury pool succumbed to temptations to peek at the news or search online about the case.
"It's like you tell a kid, `Now, don't you eat that pie over there,"' he said. "What are they going to do? Eat the pie!"
An appellate court ruled this year that jurors can hear witnesses say Savio and Stacy Peterson told them Peterson threatened them. There's apparently no physical evidence, so the hearsay is the heart of prosecutors' case.
One question looming over the trial is how much Peterson's personality will influence the jury. Before his arrest, Peterson was often seen joking about a "Win A Date With Drew" contest, his missing wife's menstrual cycle and other topics that were widely seen as inappropriate.
Brodsky has said the three years that Peterson has been in jail and largely out of the public eye might help him because the memories of his behavior have faded somewhat.
At a hearing in 2010 to determine what hearsay a jury could hear, dozens of witnesses testified that Savio told them she feared Drew Peterson would kill her and make it look like an accident.
Peterson, jailed since his 2009 arrest, pleaded not guilty. His attorneys say Savio's death was an accident and that Stacy Peterson - 30 years younger than Drew Peterson - ran off with another man and is alive.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kathleen Savio.
