Little progress made

The judge is cutting off the qualifying half-way through the questioning of the second group.

Prosecutors asked the seven jurors in the second group about their personal lives and the death penalty. The defense will question them tomorrow morning.

Eleven jurors still remain from the first group.

Despite the slow progress, Howard said he still intends to seat a jury and hold opening  statements on Wednesday.

Before adjourning for the day, he dismissed four more jurors from the broader pool of 71 for  hardship and pre-trial publicity reasons.

He made the decision for one juror in private during a bench conference with the attorneys. An attorney for the media again objected to the procedure but Howard yelled at her to sit down.

Howard dismissed the woman. A moment later, when questioning another juror, he changed his mind and changed the process, talking to one juror in open court.

Peeved judge rejects media request

Judge Howard rejected a request by the media to hold bench conferences in open court, taking a harsh and antagonistic tone toward the challenge.

An attorney for the Ocala Star-Banner challenged the court's procedure of bringing individual jurors to the bench for private conversations, saying the public -- via the media -- has a right to hear the proceedings.

Two jurors were dismissed without a reason this morning after talking with the judge and attorneys at the bench.

Howard said he was one of the most press-friendly judges and seemed personally offended by the challenge.

"You probably haven't been informed properly," Howard told the Star-Banner attorney. "We are not having secret court. That's offensive."

When the attorney asked for a different procedure to make the court more open, the judge retorted: "Throw out the baby from the bath water? Well, you're wrong."

Moments later an AP reporter's cell phone went off in court, peeving Howard even more. "Hey, you. You leave," he commanded. "Bailiffs ..."

Howard told the media to write down a phone number of the National Judicial College in Nevada, where reporters can learn more about how courtrooms work.

At the half, 11 advance

rIt turns out qualifying a jury -- particularly in regards to the death penalty question -- takes time.

At the belated lunch break, the court worked its way through the first group of 18 potential jurors. Eleven advanced on to the next round.

Of the 7 dismissed, here's the reasoning:

-- Two people said they could consider only the death penalty if Couey is found guilty, not life in prison.

-- Three people said they could under no circumstances impose the death penalty, even if found guilty.

-- One man was dismissed almost immediately because he told the judge he heard something about the case since the last time he was in court.

-- Another juror was let go quickly because he felt the defense needed to prove Couey's innocence, which goes against the premise of innocent until proven guilty.

Attorneys haven't begun to use the 10 strikes each side gets to remove a juror without cause.

For more on how the process works, check out this article from this morning's Citrus Times.

Judge announces tenative trial timeline

The final round of jury selection just began after a slight delay because a handful of jurors were delayed in traffic.

Judge Howard announced this morning he was looking for four alternates -- not six as widely reported prior to the trial -- to go with the 12-member panel.

Also, Howard said he believes the jury could be seated by mid-day Tuesday, putting opening statements on schedule for Wednesday morning.

Attorneys indicated that timeline may be optimistic. But we'll know better by the end of today.

--John Frank

Judge: Couey coloring OK

Circuit Judge Ric Howard denied a request Monday morning from prosecutors who asked the judge to stop Couey from coloring in court.

"The man is on trial for his life and if this is how he calms himself down" then its fine, Howard said. "To me its as troublesome as a cloudy day."

As reported in The St. Petersburg Times this morning, Couey started coloring Feb. 13, when the court took a break from jury selection so defense attorneys could present evidence that Couey is mentally retarded. He has been coloring ever since.

It has sparked emotional reactions from Mark Lunsford and diverse interpretations by legal experts, the Times article revealed.

At the start of court, Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway asked the judge to order Couey to stop, saying it amounts to "unsworn, nonverbal testimony."

Ridgway said the timing of when Couey began coloring was not inadvertent.

The defense argued that Couey's behavior wasn't bothering anyone. "We think it's his normal behavior and I think he should be allowed to do it," said Assistant Public Defender Alan Fanter.