Christopher Porco
Trial Opening
On June 26, 2005, jury selection for the Porco case began at the Orange County Court. It took only two days to select jurors for the trial. A total of eight women and four men were chosen to decide Chris' fate.
During jury selection, the defense filed new motions that included suppressing the testimony of Chris' fraternity dorm mates who said that he wasn't sleeping on the couch or seen at all in the dorm lounge on the night of the killings. However, the judge decided that the testimony was admissible at trial. It was an important piece of evidence for the prosecution because the testimony would establish that Chris was not where he said at the time of the attacks, thus discrediting his earlier testimony to police.
On June 28th, the trial finally began, drawing a large crowd of curious on-lookers and members of the media. Chris' family and friends were also present to support him, including his mother, who was expected to take the stand at some point during the trial in his defense. More than 80 other defense and prosecution witnesses were also lined up to take the stand.