Man on trial over baseball attack

Members of Natasha McShane’s family made a brief appearance at a Chicago court houses ahead of jury selection in the trial of Heriberto Viramontes.

The young Armagh woman’s father, Liam, mother, Sheila, and two siblings arrived at the Cook County Criminal Court building at around 8.30am, but left without explanation an hour later.

They did not return for jury selection, where 12 jurors and three alternates, were picked from a pool of dozens who appeared before Judge Jorge Alonso in Court Room 604.

Heriberto Viramontes, 34, is charged with the attempted murders of Natasha and her friend Stacy Jurich, who were beaten about the head with a baseball as they walked home from a night in Chicago more than three and a half years ago.

He faces a total of 25 charges and decades behind bars if convicted.

Viramontes looked fit and relaxed at the defence table, where he was joined by three lawyers. He wore a beige shirt, dark trousers, wore glasses and wrote left handed on a yellow note pad as the preliminary question of jurors began.

Members of his family sat in the back of the court but he was careful not to smile or laugh at them, something he has done in previous court appearances.

The potential jurors were given extra information about the case, above and beyond what is normal in a criminal case. This includes the fact Natasha was a visitor from Ireland.

The extra information was given to determine whether they heard anything about the case, which has received extensive publicity and shocked even crime hardened Chicago largely because of the apparent random brutality of the attack on the two women.

They were set upon under a dark bridge in the Bucktown neighbourhood on the northside of the city.

While Stacy Jurich has made a good recovery, though she still suffers from the effects, Natasha, 27, is unable to walk without support and then only a few steps. She cannot talk beyond a couple of whispered words.

Direct evidence is expected to begin today, with the trial likely to last until Friday week or at the latest the following Monday. It will then be given to the jury.

Viramontes’ defence is likely to centre on misidentification, that the prosecution cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt he was the person on that street when the two girls were attacked. The trial was delayed for so long in large part because of debates over DNA evidence allegedly linking Viramontes to the bat used.

The key prosecution witness will be Marcy Cruz, Viramontes co-defendant. She has pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder in return for a 22- year sentence. In return she will not be prosecuted for murder should Natasha die.

She will claim Viramontes jumped out of the van she was driving. He had a baseball bat and returned minutes with two purses.

Viramontes never asked for or was offered any deal ahead of the trial.