Seventeen of the needed 24 jurors have been selected as of 3:20 p.m. Jury selection will probably stop after prosecution and defense lawyers question a couple more potential jurors today.

The selection process will resume tomorrow. Opening arguments expected Wednesday morning.

The courtroom is half full this afternoon as jury selection continues.

After questioning six groups of three people, attorneys now have 14 jury pool members. They need 24.

They’re continuing the questioning this afternoon and will likely need a few hours tomorrow morning to find 24 qualified jurors. Attorneys for each side will then strike four per side, for a total of 16 jurors—12 plus four alternates.

After 3½ hours, attorneys have seven of the 24 jury pool members they’ll need before proceeding with the trial of Ricky Gray.

They warned the men and women that, if chosen, they’ll see gory photographs of the victims.

The first group of 25 potential jurors in the Ricky Gray trial was brought in at 9:30 a.m. to be questioned. Two were dismissed—a woman whose husband is a member of the Richmond police department, and a man who said he has medical issues that would keep him from serving. 

The 23 remaining potential jurors are now being questioned in groups of three. At 11 a.m., the attorneys finished with the first group of three, an hour after they began questioning them.

Questions for jurors have included whether they own a home, have children, have been convicted of a crime, have already formed an opinion about Gray’s guilt or innocence, or whether they would be able to consider the death penalty, should Gray be convicted.

Jury selection is under way now in the trial of Ricky Javon Gray, accused in the gruesome New Year’s Day slayings of a well-known and much-loved South Richmond family.

Gray, 28, is charged with capital murder in the slayings of Bryan Harvey, 49; his wife, Kathryn, 39; and daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4; in their home on 31st Street in Woodland Heights.

The trial of Ricky Gray, one of two men accused in the January 2006 slayings of the Bryan Harvey family, is scheduled to begin on Monday, Aug. 14.

Check back to this blog for regular updates of trial proceedings.