A six-woman, six-man jury was finalized Saturday morning from the pool of 16 jurors who had sat through the many days of testimony leading up to this weekend’s deliberation of the case, and fate, of Clifford Leon Houston. Leon and his brother Rocky Joe, both of Roane County, are accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of Roane County Deputy William Birl Jones and Gerald Michael Brown, a former deputy and “ride along” friend, who were involved in a deadly shootout with the Houstons at their South of the River home in May 2006. The families of Jones and Brown sat on one side of the Criminal Courtroom and the Houston family sat on the other; both families spent the day hugging, praying, patting each other for support, breaking off into clusters of three or five to discuss the case and what the outcome may be, and, in some cases, nodding off for a quick nap in the courtroom. Scott, a retired judge seated by the designation of the Supreme Court, spent the first hour of Saturday’s proceedings reading to the jurors their instructions — which were presented in a 28-page document. About a half hour into the reading of the instructions, the jurors were allowed to stand and stretch, while toward the end of the judge’s reading of the instructions, one of the final juror’s cell phone was taken away from her courteously by Roane County Sheriff Jack Stockton after the cell phone rang and interrupted the somber proceedings at least twice. Leon Houston is charged with first-degree premediated murder and first-degree felony murder, but jurors have the option of finding him guilty of second-degree murder, facilitation of first-degree murder, facilitation of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, facilitation of voluntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, or criminally negligent homicide.
Tags: jurors, wood floor easels, leon, murder