Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As both federal prosecutors and defense attorneys for Payton Gendron continue to prep for the October start of a trial that could see the Tops' mass shooter facing the death penalty, the son of one of the victims remains both angry and hurt four years after the racially-motivated attack at the Jefferson Avenue supermarket.
"All those feelings surface again every time I'm in the court room," said Garnell Whitfield Jr., whose mother Ruth was one of the 10 killed by Gendron during the racially motivated attack on May 14, 2022. "It is personal. Very personal."
Whitfield, the former Buffalo fire commissioner and a 2025 mayoral candidate, was one of several people who attended a 90-minute procedural hearing on May 21 before U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Vilardo.
Much of the hearing focused on jury selection including removing some potential jurors from the pool of 1,274 candidates.
Jurors will be called in the Robert Jackson Federal Courthouse in Downtown Buffalo between June 15 and June 26 to answer an extensive questionnaire.
From that, the voltaire jury selection will start in August and the trial is set to start on Oct. 15 and take several months.
In a lengthy ruling, Vilardo said key pieces of evidence such as Gendron's social media accounts can be admitted as evidence by federal prosecutors.
Gendron has already been sentenced to life in prison on state charges, but now faces a 27-count federal trial, that if found guilty he could be facing either the death penalty or life in jail with no chance for parole.
"If the jury votes to impose the death penalty, than I must impose the death penalty," Vilardo said during the May 21 hearing. "If the jury votes for life imprisonment without release, then I must impose that sentence."
Regardless, Whitfield says he remains in personal pain.
"Nothing is going to bring my mother back," Whitfield said.
Legal system works towards Oct. 15 trial start
Legal system works towards Oct. 15 trial start
