Jury Selection Begins In Short Hills Mall Murder Case
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- More than 100 potential jurors are being reviewed at the Essex County Courthouse in Newark for the trial of one of four men charged in the Short Hills mall murder case.
A day of holiday shopping ended in tragedy when 36-year-old Dustin Friedland was gunned down at The Mall at Short Hills in a deadly carjacking back in December 2013.
The Hoboken attorney was shopping at the upscale mall with his wife, Jamie. They were returning to their Range Rover in the mall's parking lot when the couple was confronted by two men.
There was a struggle, and Friedland was fatally shot in the head.
The call his wife made to 911 revealed it may have been as long as 30 minutes for an ambulance to reach Friedland on the upper level because it was unable to fit underneath the parking deck's ceiling, forcing paramedics to wheel a stretcher up the ramp.
"I'm at the Short Hills Mall parking lot, my husband has been shot. They called the ambulance like half an hour ago. Where is he?" Friedland's wife is heard saying in one of the 911 calls.
The alleged getaway driver, 36-year-old Basim Henry, is the first of four men charged to stand trial. Authorities say he was on supervised release from a 2006 robbery conviction after being released from federal prison in October 2012.
The three other defendants -- Kevin Roberts, Karif Ford and Hanif Thompson -- face separate trials.
All have pleaded not guilty.
Jury selection is expected to take more than a month. The trial is expected to last more than three weeks.