CLARKSVILLE, AR (KTHV) -- The trial of Gary Dunn, who is charged with the beating death of Nona Dirksmeyer in her Russellville apartment, has begun.
Opening arguments were presented Thursday afternoon. The trial proceedings started immediately afterwards.
Jury selection was completed Wednesday with 12 jurors and four alternates chosen.
The trial, expected to last three weeks, is the third stemming from Dirksmeyer's death. Dirksmeyer's boyfriend, Kevin Jones, was accused and then acquitted in 2007. Prosecutors then charged Dunn, and his first trial ended in a hung jury.
Circuit Judge Bill Pearson ruled Tuesday that jurors could hear testimony from a woman Dunn was convicted of assaulting as she jogged along a park trail in 2002. She didn't testify at Dunn's first trial.
According to the Associated Press, Pearson also dismissed one juror because she said she had a conversation with a person who served on the jury for Dunn's previous trial. An alternate juror was seated.
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