BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) A northwest Arkansas judge says at least 100 potential jurors will be called for the retrial of a man charged with killing his 6-year-old son by sexually assaulting him with a stick.
Court records first reported by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette show Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren on Friday said a list of 250 potential jurors will be chosen with 100 initially contacted and told to appear Feb. 18 for possible selection for the murder and battery trial of Mauricio Torres, 50, for the 2015 death of Isaiah Torres.
Mauricio Torres’ 2016 conviction and death sentence was overturned by a divided Arkansas Supreme Court, which ruled 4-3 last April that Arkansas authorities couldn’t use rape as a justification for the murder conviction because the assault occurred in Missouri.
Investigators say Torres used a stick to assault the boy during a family camping trip in Missouri and the child later died at an Arkansas hospital.
Torres’ attorneys have said his actions were intended as punishment and the father didn’t know they could kill the boy.
Torres’ wife, Cathy, pleaded guilty in 2017 to capital murder for the child’s death and was sentenced to life without parole.
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