By Jameson Cook, Macomb Daily Staff Writer
The September trial of the man accused of killing Matthew Landry will take on some of the same characteristics of the hyper-public Stephen Grant trial.
Ihab Maslamani, 17, of Detroit, is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 8 in Macomb County Circuit Court in front of Judge Diane Druzinski, the same judge who presided over the Stephen Grant trial in 2007, when Grant was convicted of second-degree murder for killing his wife, Tara, in Washington Township.
In addition to being accused of kidnapping and killing Landry last August, Maslamani is charged with a Harrison Township bank robbery and Roseville carjacking over the two days after Landry was abducted.
Robert Taylor, 17, of Detroit, Maslamani's co-defendant in the Landry slaying, will face a separate Oct. 26 trial in front of Druzinski.
Assistant Macomb prosecutor William Cataldo, the chief homicide attorney who will try Maslamani, said that while the trial will be high profile, it shouldn't reach the level of Grant's case.
"This is a high-profile case," he acknowledged, "but doesn't have the notoriety of the Grant case."
Cataldo said court officials and attorneys learned from the Grant case that they won't need to call in as many prospective jurors. For the Grant trial, more than 400 Macomb County residents were summoned to the court to potentially serve on the jury. Of 417 contacted, 381 showed up and 371 were interviewed. Of those, 168 advanced beyond a first round of questioning. The jury was chosen shortly after the second round began. The process took more than a week and drew complaints from some legal observers.
Cataldo said officials believe they won't have to call in many more people than on the typical first trial day of the week, about 130 prospective jurors. He said he expects an extra 20 bodies will be required.
As in the Grant case, jurors will complete a questionnaire to help attorneys quickly learn about the prospective panelists, but it should be shorter than the 26-page document completed by those in the Grant pool. Many questions posed in the Grant case won't be relevant to this case, he said.
"The details of this case aren't as graphic as the Grant case," Cataldo said. "You don't have domestic violence issues to ask (potential jurors)" as in the Grant case.
However, the Maslamani case questionnaire likely will contain some of the same questions as the Grant survey, which was based on the questionnaire used in the Scott Peterson case. Peterson is on death row in California for killing his wife in 2002.
Prior to the Grant case, the last time officials implemented a questionnaire was for defendant Andrew Trombley's trial in the early 1990s. He was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Deanna Seifert, 10, in Warren in 1992, and sentenced in 1993 to a minimum of 40 years in prison.
Following a scheduling conference, Druzinski on Friday ordered the jury questionnaire and judge instructions to jurors be completed by next Friday.
Druzinski has not yet made a decision on whether cameras will be allowed in the courtroom to film live. For the Grant case, "live to tape" filming was allowed, meaning it could be broadcast following each day's proceedings.
Druzinski recently agreed to separate the trial for Maslamani and Taylor, but rejected defense attorney Joseph Kosmala's request to try Maslamani separately for each of his three cases.
Maslamani and Taylor are accused of abducting Landry, 21, of Chesterfield Township, on Aug. 9 from outside a Quiznos Subs shop at 10 Mile and Gratiot Avenue in Eastpointe. His body was found four days later in an abandoned home in Detroit.
Maslamani is accused of robbing the Flagstar Bank at Metropolitan Parkway and Crocker Road and holding a gun to the head of a 19-year-old customer about 12:30 p.m. Aug. 10.
On Aug. 11, Maslamani was caught fleeing from police after carjacking a man in the Walmart parking lot at 12 Mile Road and Gratiot.
Landry suffered what police said was a bullet wound to the head, although Kosmala has questioned that, saying it could have been blunt force trauma.
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