After courtroom attack, jury selection in Liczbinski's slaying continues

Attorneys in the trial of two men accused of murdering a Philadelphia police officer selected juror number one just after 12:30 p.m. today.

Not in the courtroom for the selection process was defense attorney William Bowe, who on Wednesday was punched twice in the head by Eric Deshann Floyd, his client.

Bowe, who was taken from the Criminal Justice Center by ambulance, though he was not seriously injured, is now serving as a consult to Floyd's other attorney, Earl G. Kauffman.

Bowe was in the courtroom this morning but left before Common Pleas Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes and defense and prosecution attorneys began interviewing potential jurors.

Hughes on Wednesday postponed the resumption of jury selection until today, saying then that Bowe would be rested and ready.

It was not clear why his status with the case had changed, nor who changed it. Hughes has placed a gag order on the trial's attorneys, barring them from talking with reporters.

Floyd, 35, watched from a holding cell via closed-circuit television, as Hughes ordered after his sneak attack on Bowe.

On the day of the attack and on the previous two days, Floyd complained to the judge that he wanted to fire Bowe and represent himself. Hughes denied the request and had Floyd removed from the courtroom Tuesday.

Floyd and co-defendant Levon Terrell Warner, 41, are accused of helping to murder Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski following a bank robbery in May 2008.

If the jury finds them guilty of first-degree murder, the defendants could be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole.

The first juror who will help decide their fates is a male college student. He was the third person interviewed today by Hughes, prosecutor Jude Conroy, attorney Kauffman for Floyd and attorneys Gary Server and W. Fred Harrison Jr. for Warner.