MANGUM, Okla., June 20 (UPI) -- Jury selection moved toward completion Monday in the trial of the wife of an ex-prison warden accused of helping a killer break out of jail.
Twenty-one panelists have been seated in the month-long process in the trial of Bobbi Parker, accused of helping Randolph Dial escape from Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite in 1994.
She has maintained she was kidnapped by Dial, whom she lived with for 10 years after the escape. They were found on a Texas chicken ranch in 2005; Dial supported Parker's claim she was kidnapped until his death in 2007.
Parker and her husband, Randy, live in McAlester, Okla.
Attorneys must select 12 jurors, and either two or four alternates. The Oklahoman reported that's not an easy task when the town has just 3,010 people, and everyone has an opinion on whether Parker was kidnapped or went with Dial willingly.
"The trial just about affects every family in the area because so many people are called for the jury pool," Wayne Vaughn, director of the Mangum Chamber of Commerce, told The Oklahoman.
Vaughn said Greer County is bracing for a flood of media when the trial begins. Windows on the courtroom in the 80-seat, 105-year-old courthouse have been blacked out, but there haven't been any problems so far, County Commissioner Jerald Gifford said.
