Prosecutor Bob Sombathy gave Moody the chance to enter a plea to second-degree murder in exchange for a life sentence. Moody, who faces a mandatory life sentence if he’s convicted of killing 24-year-old Megan Pettis in a shopping center parking lot March 19, 2013, declined the offer and jury selection began.
The selection took all day. Potential jurors were taken into a private room and individually questioned about what they’d heard about the case in the media and whether they could put that information aside and judge the case based on what was presented in court.
Several people witnessed the shooting and several nearby businesses had surveillance video cameras that might have captured the crime. Defense attorney Rusty Shepard
“I believe that right up front the defense is going to concede [Moody] committed homicide,” Shepard said.
Shepard and defense attorney Jean Marie Downing had hoped to show jurors that, although Moody didn’t meet the legal definition of insanity at the time of the shooting, he nonetheless was suffering from mental health issues they contend left him incapable of forming premeditation, which Sombathy must prove to convict Moody of first-degree murder.
Sombathy again made that point to potential jurors Monday.
“There is no defense in this case that he’s insane,” Sombathy said.
Moody had been in an inpatient mental health treatment facility in the weeks before he shot Pettis. Downing and Shepard have said Moody’s intent on the day of the shooting was to kill himself in Pettis’ presence. Instead he opened fire with a .45-caliber handgun and shot Pettis in the head as she drove away from him.