YOUNGSTOWN — Opening statements will be given in the Danyo Sellers murder trial this morning in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after a jury was seated Monday. Sellers, 19, went on trial last week also, but it ended Feb. 24 with a mistrial.

According to the Brittanica.com website, a mistrial is “a trial that has been terminated and declared void before the (jury) can hand down a decision or render a verdict.” A mistrial “prematurely nullifies the … proceedings as if they had not taken place,” it states, adding that if a another trial takes place following a mistrial, another jury is selected, and it begins at the beginning “with the previous testimony or other findings not necessarily relevant in the new court proceedings.”

Sellers is accused of shooting to death Amya Monserrat, 15, outside Martha’s Boulevard Tavern on Southern Boulevard on the South Side April 15, 2023. Authorities say she was attending a birthday party for a girl about her age and was outside the tavern when she was struck by a bullet from a car traveling near the tavern.

Jury selection is a process of determining whether individuals called for jury duty can perform juror duties fairly, by following the law and giving their full attention to the matter. The judge and attorneys ask jurors how they feel on various issues to determine whether the person is a good fit for the case.

During jury selection Monday, Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor John Juhasz discussed a concept many people don’t readily understand — the type of murder charge Sellers faces — called “felony murder.” Sellers also faces several other charges.

Juhasz explained that a “normal murder” would be “I pull out a gun and shoot this gentleman here,” pointing to Youngstown Police Detective Michael Cox, the lead detective in the case. “Juhasz had a gun. He pulled it out. He meant to shoot Cox. He shot Cox. Cox is dead.”

Juhasz said felony murder is “a little different. And the judge at the end of the case will talk to you about this. A defendant can be criminally responsible for a killing regardless of the identity of the person killed if the defendant acted in such a way as to … proximately result in a death,” Juhasz said.

The Justia legal Dictionary defines proximate as “quite close or nearby in relation to something else.”

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito told the potential jurors that Sellers is “charged with murder by virtue of committing an offense called felonious assault,” Juhasz said.

It means that a person “pulled out a gun and shot at somebody. It may not have been the person you meant to hit. But as a result of what you did, things happen and … someone ends up dead,” Juhasz said. “A little bit more complicated, correct?” Juhasz asked.

He asked the potential jurors if there is anything about that law, even if he or she did not like it, that would prevent the potential juror from following the law. He added, “Once you sign up for this job, if (D’Apolito) tells you that’s the law, you have to agree to follow it.” No one objected.

He asked one potential juror if a situation arose in which prosecutors proved that Sellers was responsible for Monserrat’s death “even though Mr. Sellers might not have been shooting directly at” her, would the juror be able to find Sellers guilty.

The potential juror said he could.