Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With the jury selection process still underway, the federal judge presiding over the death penalty phase for Tops' mass shooter Payton Gendron said he expects the trial to begin by early December and likely last into February.
Federal jurist Lawrence Vilardo repeated the expected time frame while he and a bank of lawyers both prosecuting and defending Gendron continued to vet potential jurors in the first ever federal death penalty case to be tried in the Buffalo Niagara region.
The jury selection process, after 19 days, has vetted more than 1,300 potential jurors.
The federal trial is a two-phased process.
First, the 12-person jury must find Gendron guilty, who is facing 27 charges related to the May 14, 2022 shooting spree at a Tops Friendly Market on Jefferson Avenue where 10 people - all Black - were shot and killed and three others - two of which were also Black - were injured.
If found guilty of at least 20 of the 27 charges, Gendron - now 22 - could be facing the death penalty.
The jury - in the second phase - must determine if Gendron will face the federal death penalty or life in prison without parole.
"This is a historic case and will have an impact on everyone," Vilardo said during the Nov. 12 proceedings.
Having completed its 19th day of jury vetting, more than 1,300 people have been interviewed with the vast majority white but a 50/50 split between men and women but also a cross section of young adults to retirees.
All are questioned by Vilardo along with lawyers from the U.S. Attorney's office and pool of federal public defenders.
The US Attorney's legal team includes 17 lawyers with nine coming from its Washington office.
The federal public defenders legal team includes 8 lawyers with six coming from outside the immediate Buffalo Niagara region.
Gendron has been in court everyday, clean shaven and hair cut shorn, frequently wearing golf shirts and dark colored khaki pants. He hasn't spoken publicly but frequently converses with one of the public defenders legal team.
Buffalo attorney Payl McQuillen and chair of the WNY Coalition Against the Death Penalty called the entire process "amazing."
"Both sides have done a great job of weeding out who may be on the jury and who may not be on the jury," McQuillen said.
Of McQuillen's concern is how jurors may feel about sentencing Gendron to the death penalty.
McQuillen said he and his organization would prefer a life without parole sentence similar to what Gendron received in his state trial.
Gendron pled guilty to 23 charges in New York State Supreme Court in early 2023 and was sentenced to life in prison with no parole plus 99 years.
"All murders are heinous in their nature, but the death penalty should not be part of the final sentence," McQuillen said.
New York state has not held a trial where the defendant received the death penalty since 1963 and federally, the last death penalty sentence came in 1953 when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted in spying charges.
Anti-death penalty supporters say it is as much as 5 times more expensive to defend a death penalty sentence than a life in prison with no parole final outcome.
"What concerns me is they may be excluding people who view the death penalty the same way I do," McQuillen said.
Jury vetting continues on Nov. 16 in the Robert H. Jackson Courthouse in downtown Buffalo.
Jury pool continues to be vetted by lawyers and presiding judge
Jury pool continues to be vetted by lawyers and presiding judge
