PITTSBURGH (AP) - A jury has been selected for next week’s death penalty trial in the shooting death of a western Pennsylvania police officer almost two years ago.
Nine women and three men as well as four alternates had been chosen by Tuesday afternoon for the trial of 31-year-old Rahmael Sal Holt in the November 2017 slaying of New Kensington officer Brian Shaw.
Prosecutors have said they intend to seek capital punishment if Holt is convicted of first-degree murder. They contend that he was an armed drug dealer who had planned to rob the driver of the SUV Shaw attempted to stop in Kensington on the night of the shooting. Holt has maintained that he wasn’t the person who fired.
Holt’s father, 48-year-old Gregory Baucum, faces witness intimidation charges stemming from the case.
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