With jury picked, attorneys to start testimony Monday in Upatoi triple-homicide trial

After four days of questioning 70 prospective jurors, attorneys have picked 12 plus four alternates to hear the triple-homicide case against 17-year-old Rufus Leonard Burks IV.

Burks is the only remaining defendant set for trial in the Jan. 4, 2016, slayings of Gloria Short, 54; her son Caleb Short, 17; and granddaughter Gianna Lindsey, 10. Codefendant Raheam Daniel Gibson has agreed to plead guilty and testify. A third suspect, Jervarceay Tapley, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of malice or intentional murder. Both Gibson and Tapley are to be sentenced after Burks’ trial.

Of the 70 potential jurors attorneys questioned this week, 50 were qualified to serve, with Judge Gil McBride finding they had no hardships for which they should be excused, no personal connection to the case, and no prejudice that would inhibit their treating Burks fairly.

Venue change denied

After attorneys settled Thursday on the pool of 50 deemed qualified, Burks’ attorney Jennifer Curry renewed her motion for a change of venue, arguing media coverage of the homicides has been so pervasive her client can’t get a fair trial in Columbus.

The emotional impact of the heinous killings was obvious when they made headlines two years ago, Curry said, noting crisis counselors afterward were dispatched to Shaw High School, where Caleb Short was a junior: “This was something that affected an entire community,” she said.

When police revealed that Burks, then only 15, had been charged in the case, people immediately tried to look him up online, Curry said. The first news reports they saw then were not related to Burks but to his father, who shares the same name and served time in prison for manslaughter, she said.

The media spotlight soon shifted to the son and his two co-defendants, who drew widespread condemnation, she said: “Every opinion is these three guys are guilty.” Comments readers posted to online news articles called them “lower than animals,” she said, adding, “Every single comment was extremely negative toward my client.”

Assistant District Attorney Chris Williams countered that courts rarely move a trial because of widespread pretrial publicity. That a case repeatedly makes the news is not enough to warrant a change of venue, he said. The public exposure must be both pervasive and extremely prejudicial.

Of the 70 jurors questioned this week, only five, or 7 percent of the total, were found to be so prejudiced by media coverage that they were unfit to serve, Williams noted.

Curry argued that she needn’t prove to an “absolute certainty” that Burks couldn’t get a fair trial. The probability alone is sufficient, she said.

In denying Curry’s motion, McBride noted that as attorneys first surveyed the 70 prospective jurors in sets of 14, every group had people who had heard nothing about the case. Most of those who had heard about it said they still could remain unbiased and base their judgment on the evidence presented in court.

Those involved in the investigation and trial undoubtedly focus more intently on the case than the general public, which has other matters to attend to, McBride said. “We live and breathe the case,” he said, but others do not.

Juror questions

More than 300 residents were summoned to the Columbus Government Center for jury duty this week, as trials were expected in other courts besides McBride’s. Only 176 people showed up; 130 were devoted to the triple-homicide case; and 70 of those were questioned. No other Superior Court cases went to trial this week.

Among those questioned individually was a woman who said she always reads the newspaper and daily watches local TV news. She had seen reports on the homicides, and particularly remembered the age of the youngest victim. “When any child is killed anywhere, it’s disturbing,” she said.

She was dismissed not because of what she’d heard about the case, but because she did not believe juvenile offenders should be charged as adults, as they often lack the experience and maturity to make rational decisions. “I do not feel that’s morally correct,” she said.

A man from the jury pool said he also had seen news reports on the homicide case: “I just remember bits and pieces of it when it first happened,” he said. He had a daughter around the same age as Gianna Lindsey, and recalled that she died of “blunt-force trauma.”

He was dismissed because he said he didn’t feel comfortable judging others, did not understand why Burks wouldn’t testify in his own defense, and did not think he could follow the judge’s instructions if told no defendant is required to testify and no juror should consider that when weighing the evidence.

After qualifying 50 jurors, attorneys finished picking 16 to serve on the case about 3 p.m. Thursday. The four alternates are to sit with the panel of 12 to hear all the evidence, but they will not participate in deliberations unless they’re required to substitute for jurors who are incapacitated by illness or other causes.

McBride wanted at least four alternates available because of this year’s virulent flu season.

The qualified jurors were dismissed Thursday afternoon as attorneys picked those who’ll hear the case. At 9 a.m. Friday, the entire pool of 50 will return to McBride’s courtroom before the 16 chosen are called to the jury box and given their instructions. McBride said he will not tell them which ones are alternates.

The judge expects to recess court around noon Friday. Opening statements and testimony are to begin at 9 a.m. Monday.

The background

Before Tapley pleaded guilty this week, Chief Assistant District Attorney Al Whitaker gave this synopsis of the homicides:

He said Tapley was acquainted with the Shorts because Gloria Short’s brother was his grandmother’s boyfriend, and he lived with the couple. The Shorts treated him like a cousin, Whitaker said.

On Jan. 3, 2016, Tapley talked to the other suspects about wanting to “make a lick,” meaning to commit a robbery. The three that night used a bicycle and moped or motorized bike to travel from south Columbus to the Shorts’ 3057 Bentley Drive home off McKee Road in Upatoi.

Police later tracked their movements through cell phone records, Whitaker said. Those communications ceased for about about 75 minutes after the suspects reached Bentley Drive, he said.

At 8 a.m. the next day, Gloria Short’s husband Robert Short Sr., a nurse, came home from working the night shift at a local hospital and found the three bodies. Authorities said autopsies showed each victim had “extreme blunt-force trauma to the head,” and Gloria Short and Gianna also had “multiple stab wounds.”

Two days later, on Jan. 6, 2016, Gibson’s mother called police to report her daughter had told her Gibson was involved in the case. Gibson later implicated the other two suspects, and divulged other details, police said.

Among the loot taken from the Shorts’ home were some of Caleb’s clothes, including an Adidas jacket, camouflage pants, polo shirts, and several pairs of Nike sneakers, plus video games and $600 in coins stashed in a box made for storing wine, police said.

Whitaker said photos of people wearing Caleb’s stolen clothes appeared on Facebook soon afterward.

Also missing from the Shorts’ home were two vehicles, a green 2004 GMC Envoy and silver 2014 Volkswagen Beetle. Both were found abandoned in the Oakland Park neighborhood off South Lumpkin Road.

At the time of the crime, Tapley was 16 and Gibson was 19. Today Tapley is 19, and Gibson is 21.

Each defendant could be sentenced to life in prison.

This story was originally published February 1, 2018 at 4:39 PM with the headline "With jury picked, attorneys to start testimony Monday in Upatoi triple-homicide trial."