Jury selection set for capital murder trial in Bobby Wilson killing

BAY MINETTE — As Leslie Eric Buzbee heads to court again this week in the 2007 robbery and fatal bludgeoning of a popular Spanish Fort service station owner, both sides plan generally the same witnesses, testimony and schedule, while hoping for a different outcome.

A mistrial was declared in May, when the jury deadlocked after a monthlong capital murder trial.

Jury selection is set to start Monday in Baldwin County Circuit Judge James Reid's courtroom.

District Attorney Judy Newcomb and lead defense lawyer John Beck agree that opening arguments should begin by Thursday, and that the trial may again last a month.

But those are about the only points of agreement in a courtroom clash that by all accounts has been more heated than most.

Arthur "Bobby" Wilson, 70, suffered skull fractures during the Aug. 11, 2007, attack at the Wilson's Service Center that he had operated since the early 1960s. He died the following December.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Michael Pylant will again lead the prosecution. Newcomb said that she and Pylant are "confident," but know the challenges of a complex circumstantial case.

"The difficulty of this case is presenting it in a court of law under the rules of evidence and trying to make something very complicated, very simple," she said.

According to the prosecution account, Buzbee needed money for drugs and to support an estranged girlfriend and child, and had somehow obtained thousands of dollars after Wilson was beaten and robbed.

On the day before the attack, prosecutors said, Buzbee had a run-in with Wilson, when the service station owner refused to cash a check for him.

"Obviously we didn't get it clear enough for some of the jurors," Newcomb said. "We have tried as we were preparing for this trial to do some things and develop some exhibits that we hope will make some things clearer."...