Opening arguments will begin Monday in the trial of a 40-year-old Molino man charged with killing his father in West Penn Township last year and then shooting at three other people in neighboring Berks County.
On Friday, attorneys for both Franklin Stumhofer Jr. and the commonwealth selected a jury of five men and seven women to hear the case that is expected to run through Thursday.
Two men were also chosen to serve as alternate jurors.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas J. Campion Jr. is prosecuting the case assisted by First Assistant District Attorney William C. Reiley, while Robert J. Kirwan, Reading, will defend Stumhofer.
Campion said the commonwealth plans to call between 25 and 35 witnesses during the trial to be presided over by President Judge William E. Baldwin.
Baldwin scheduled opening arguments by both sides to begin at 9 a.m. Monday.
State police at Frackville charged Stumhofer with one count of criminal homicide, three counts of attempted homicide, seven counts of aggravated assault, five counts of recklessly endangering another person and four counts of simple assault.
Troopers said that Stumhofer went to the home of his father, Franklin Stumhofer, 61, at 6 Log Lane in West Penn Township on Sept. 7, where he shot and killed him.
After killing his father, troopers said the younger Stumhofer drove to Windsor Township in Berks County, near Hamburg, and fired three bullets into a vehicle driven by his brother-in-law, Larry Miller, 42.
Miller and his two passengers, Samuel Stumhofer, brother of Franklin Stumhofer Jr., and Blain Schneck, 19, were not struck by the bullets or injured.
Campion said even though the second shooting occurred in Berks County, the entire case is being tried in Schuylkill County.
"It started here and we're looking it as one continuous act," Campion said.
The decision to have the entire case heard in Schuylkill County was made jointly by former Schuylkill County District Attorney James P. Goodman, who now serves as a Schuylkill County judge, and Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams.
During the 2 1/2 hour selection process, jurors were not questioned individually as would have been the procedure if the commonwealth was seeking the death penalty against Stumhofer Jr.
Kirwan said his client will present a defense but would not say whether or not he would take the stand in doing so.
