Seven jurors, four men and three women, were seated during the first day of jury selection in the University of Rochester kidnapping trial.
Five of the nine suspects arrested in the abduction and robbery of two UR football team members pleaded guilty for reduced sentences. The remaining four are expected to be on trial for the next month.
Jurors were questioned closely about their ability to remain impartial and about how much coverage of the kidnapping story they had heard.
The four remaining defendants are Lydell Strickland, David Alcaraz-Ubiles, Inalia Rolldan and Ruth Lora. All are accused of playing various parts in the kidnapping, robbery and abuse of two UR football players, Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo (photos). Both men were lured off campus, then held at gunpoint in a house on Harvest Street until rescued by a Rochester Police SWAT team. Both were beaten and one was shot.
The two were apparently victims of mistaken identity. The organizers of the kidnap plot were looking to get even for a drug-related robbery that was allegedly committed by another football team member.