UPDATE (6:30 PM) -- Jury selection has concluded for the day.
The approximately 11 jurors from Wednesday morning's pool that passed to the second phase of questioning will be returning on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
They will join the approximately 17 from Tuesday's pool of potential jurors that also passed to the second phase of questioning.
On Wednesday afternoon, another pool of 48 potential jurors was brought in for the first phase of questioning. The ones who passed on to the second phase from this group will return on Friday.
We expect another pool on Thursday morning that will go through the initial phase of questioning.
So far, almost 150 potential jurors have gone through that first phase of questioning.
UPDATE (2 PM) -- Court is back in session after being released for lunch. Mark Sievers is back in the courtroom, and individual questioning has resumed.
Recap: from today's pool of 50 potential jurors, so far 37 have been excused from jury duty.
#MarkSieversTrial: Court is back in session after being released for lunch.
— Sandra Rodriguez (@SandraR_media) November 13, 2019
Mark Sievers is back in the courtroom, and individual questioning has resumed.
Recap: from today's pool of 50 potential jurors, so far 37 have been excused from jury duty.
Individual questioning of potential jurors was paused after defense alerted the Judge that Mark Sievers was not feeling well.
— Sandra Rodriguez (@SandraR_media) November 13, 2019
Sievers then stood up, grabbed a trash can, and got physically sick. A medic is coming up to check on Sievers.
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UPDATE (12:45 PM) -- Individual questioning of potential jurors was paused after defense alerted the Judge that Mark Sievers was not feeling well.
Sievers then stood up, grabbed a trash can, and got physically sick. A medic is coming up to check on Sievers.
5 more potential jurors were excused for hardships.
— Sandra Rodriguez (@SandraR_media) November 13, 2019
The 5 who have not heard of this case were asked to return Thursday.
14 remain for individual questioning to find out how much they know about the Teresa Sievers murder case.
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UPDATE (10 AM) -- Jury selection continues today for the Mark Sievers trial with a pool of 50 potential jurors. Yesterday another pool of 50 went through initial questioning. From that pool, about 17 potential jurors will be returning on Thursday.
Potential jurors are answering why serving on a 5-week trial would present a hardship for them.
— Sandra Rodriguez (@SandraR_media) November 13, 2019
One potential juror said they suffer from childhood trauma. The potential juror then pointed at Mark Sievers and said, "that person over there looks like someone from the news."
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FORT MYERS, Fla. – Prosecutors and Mark Sievers' lawyers will go back to work Wednesday to try and find a jury for the Sievers murder trial.
Prosecutors say Mark Sievers hired two other men to kill his wife, Dr. Teresa Sievers, because he wanted the life insurance money.
On the first day of jury selection Tuesday, less than half of potential jurors made it to the next round of questioning.
50 potential jurors went through the first round of questioning. They were asked if a financial or health hardship would make it difficult to sit on a jury for a trial expected to take weeks. Nearly half were excused for that reason. Then they were asked if they were familiar with the case. 17 people in total were asked to return on Thursday.
And you can count on Fox 4 for complete coverage of this trial. Not only on air, but online on Fox4Now.com, as well our social media including Facebook and Twitter.
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