{"id":31737,"date":"2014-04-08T10:11:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T02:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tribune.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=31737"},"modified":"2014-04-08T10:11:32","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T02:11:32","slug":"opening-statements-today-crisostomos-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/opening-statements-today-crisostomos-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening statements today in Crisostomo\u2019s trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_31741\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31741\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a attid=\"31741\"  href=\"http:\/\/tribune.ctsi-logistics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/issx9999ns154819.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/tribune.ctsi-logistics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/issx9999ns154819-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Joseph A. Crisostomo is escorted by a Corrections officer during a break in yesterday?s jury selection in Superior Court. Crisostomo is on trial for the kidnapping and killing of bartender Emerita Romero in February 2012. (Ferdie dela Torre)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-31741\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31741\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joseph A. Crisostomo is escorted by a Corrections officer during a break in yesterday?s jury selection in Superior Court. Crisostomo is on trial for the kidnapping and killing of bartender Emerita Romero in February 2012. (Ferdie dela Torre)<\/figcaption><\/figure>Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho impaneled yesterday eight jurors, including two alternates, who will decide the fate of Joseph A. Crisostomo, a habitual offender who is accused of kidnapping and killing bartender Emerita Romero in February 2012. <\/p>\n<p>The jury is composed of six females and two males.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution and defense counsel will present their opening statements at 8:30am today, Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>When Saipan Tribune left the courtroom at 5:10pm yesterday, Camacho was still giving the jury instructions.<\/p>\n<p>Interim chief prosecutor Brian Flaherty and assistant attorney general Margo Brown-Badawy are prosecuting the case. Defense attorney Janet H. King is counsel for the 40-year-old Crisostomo.<\/p>\n<p>Camacho\u2019s courtroom was jampacked yesterday as 138 out of 156 prospective jurors who were served with summons showed up at the jury selections.<\/p>\n<p>Camacho issued arrest warrants against nine persons who did not show up. He excused the rest.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution is expected to file a third amended information today that will remove the theft charge.<\/p>\n<p>This developed as the CNMI Supreme Court issued an opinion last Friday in a separate case, ruling that theft is a lesser included offense of robbery.<\/p>\n<p>With the dismissal of theft, Crisostomo\u2019s remaining charges are first-degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault in the first degree, robbery, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.<\/p>\n<p>Romero reportedly got on a car that she mistook for a taxicab near her house in Garapan on Feb. 5, 2012. Two days later, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents found her body at the former La Fiesta Mall in San Roque\/As Matuis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho impaneled yesterday eight jurors, including two alternates, who&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":31741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[162,88],"class_list":["post-31737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-car","tag-superior-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}