By John McCann

jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601

DURHAM -- Jury selection continues today for the retrial of Thaddius R. Wright, who is charged with assault with a deadly weapon intent to kill inflicting serious injury and first-degree burglary.

Wright allegedly shot Rueben Garnett Jr. on or around Nov. 17, 2004, at Foxfire Apartments in north Durham.

A jury in October found Wright guilty of those assault and burglary charges. Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Titus sentenced him to 116 to 149 months in prison. Wright, 27, appealed the ruling.

Superior Court Judge Cressie Thigpen Jr. is presiding over Wright's retrial.

Thigpen probed potential jurors to gauge their fitness to serve on the trial. He wanted to get a general sense of who they were by asking about their occupations, their marital status and whether they have children.

Assistant District Attorney Stormy Ellis asked if any of the potential jurors had any major religious hang-ups that would keep them from passing judgement on Wright. She asked other questions to feel them out.

After excusing some of the potential jurors from the panel, Ellis eventually was satisfied and the prospects were in the hands of defense lawyer Woodrena Baker-Harrell.

"Any of you own pets?" Baker-Harrell asked.

That question had to do with some evidence that is expected to come up when the trial gets rolling. Baker-Harrell and Ellis on Monday jockeyed during pretrial hearings about whether jurors will be allowed to hear information pertaining to a dead dog at the crime scene.

Regarding Baker-Harrell's question to potential jurors about owning animals, the majority of the 12 said they do have pets.