The Call for Civic Duty in a High Profile Trial Starts Wednesday

(La Junta, CO) -- Four hundred Otero county residents are expected to be called for jury duty this week. It's for the trial of Edward Aragon who is accused of killing his girlfriend in 2015.

It's not unusual for the need to call such a large number of potential jurors considering it will be to hear and try a case that's received a lot of attention. And small communities often times have people end up in the jury pool who might know too much about the case, might be related to the defendant, attorneys, witnesses or judge and might have been a victim of a similar crime.

Wednesday, June 15th, 200 potential jurors will be asked to report for duty with the next 200 to be called for Thursday, June 16th. They will complete a questionnaire and go through a series of questions with both the defense, the prosecution and the judge. This process is known as Voir Dire, a French term that simply means, "to speak the truth." This allows any bias to be discovered or to identify any reason the person would not be suited or fit to sit on the jury in this trial. The entire process of just seating a jury of 12 with one alternate is expected to take until early next week.

In this trial, the 16th judicial district which is made up of Crowley, Otero and Bent counties, is using a judge from the 15th judicial district, the Honorable Michael Davidson.

###