FILE – In this March 12, 2018, file photo, Willie Cory Godbolt listens during his arraignment in Brookhaven, Miss. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, at the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando, Miss., for the trial of Godbolt, a man accused of killing eight people in Mississippi in 2017. Godbolt has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges including four counts of murder and four counts of capital murder. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — Attorneys questioned potential jurors Tuesday for the death penalty case of a Mississippi man accused of killing eight people.
It was the second day of jury selection in the trial of Willie Cory Godbolt. It was not immediately clear when the 12 jurors and three alternates would be chosen by.
Investigators said Godbolt went to his in-laws’ home in south Mississippi’s Lincoln County in May 2017 and argued with his estranged wife and her family over the couple’s two children. A deputy was called, and a witness said Godbolt shot and killed the deputy, Godbolt’s mother-in-law and two other people. After that, Godbolt shot and killed four other people at two other homes, police said.
Godbolt, now 37, said “I’m sorry” while a reporter was recording him after the shootings.
Jurors and alternates were being chosen in north Mississippi’s DeSoto County. They will be taken about 285 miles (460 kilometers) south to hear the trial at a courthouse in Magnolia, which is near Lincoln County.
Godbolt has pleaded not guilty to four counts of capital murder, four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery. He has remained in custody since his arrest on May 28, 2017, hours after the shootings. One of his attorneys has said Godbolt is unlikely to use an insanity defense.
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