Jury Selection Halted in Trial Over Fatal Beating

LOS ANGELES —  An appeals court halted jury selection Monday for a Sylmar woman accused of beating her husband to death with a baseball bat. The appeals panel agreed to hear prosecutors who said a Superior Court judge ordered the trial to begin over their objections.

Jeanie Adair, who is being held without bail until the 2nd District Court of Appeals decides the matter, maintains that she was attacked by robbers who killed her husband and fled.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Marsh Goldstein has repeatedly asked for delays, citing late disclosure by the defense of its witnesses and the illness of a key police witness.

However, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt said the defense had turned over his witnesses’ names quickly. Wiatt also said that the prosecution could call the ailing witness a couple of weeks into the trial, when he recovers.

As prospective jurors were being questioned Monday, the district attorney’s appellate division filed a letter to the Court of Appeals in Los Angeles, requesting a stay of the proceedings. The appellate court granted that request Monday afternoon and ordered the prosecution to file papers on the matter by Thursday and the court to respond by next Monday.

The defense contends the murder was part of an attack on Jeanie Adair undertaken at the behest of Mindy Shapiro, ex-wife of Dr. Michael Shapiro. Shapiro was Jeanie Adair’s lover at the time. The prosecution intends to show that Adair killed her husband for insurance.