A day after a six-person jury was chosen in the trial of former Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels, opening statements will begin today.
Daniels is charged with tampering with evidence, attempted destruction of evidence and five counts of lying to law enforcement. The tampering with evidence charges relates to deleting Google account and cellphone data while knowing he was under investigation, according to court documents. The alleged offenses took place between May 6, 2019, and June 4, 2019.from a pool of 200 Clay County residents. The six jurors are made up of four women and two men.
Monday was the first day of jury selection, and throughout the day, potential jurors were asked one-by-one about the level of knowledge they had about the case. Many of them said they heard about it through the news media.Daniels was in court, sitting attentively with his attorneys by his side as they narrowed down a pool of potential jurors.
These questions may seem invasive, but they can help identify possible bias in the potential jurors since the case revolves around an affair between Daniels and a woman he supervised.after an investigation into the affair between Daniels and a woman named Cierra Smith. She was a corrections officer at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office when Daniels was the JSO director of the jail.Daniels is accused of ordering one of his deputies to illegally arrest Smith for stalking him in 2019.
Investigators say Daniels lied to them about the actions he took when the affair became public and had his phone scrubbed of incriminating communications. State Attorney Melissa Nelson recused her office because of a conflict of interest, so the Fifth Circuit State Attorney’s Office from Ocala is handling the case after being appointed as an independent prosecutor by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The trial will be held in Clay County but will be presided over by St. Johns County Judge R. Lee Smith, as all Clay County judges also recused themselves from the case.
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