It may be ‘very difficult’ to find fair jury for man accused of killing 18 people, lawyer says

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama man accused of killing 18 people in 2023 and 2024, including two mass shootings, will go to trial in April next year, a judge ruled Tuesday.

But his attorneys have raised concerns about whether it will be possible to select impartial jurors from a city still reeling from record levels of violence last year.

Damien McDaniel, 22, faces murder charges related to 18 deaths in Birmingham, Alabama — including eight people killed at two separate mass shootings in July and September. Jefferson County District Judge Shanta Owens also ruled that prosecutors could pursue the death penalty against McDaniel under Alabama law.

Birmingham had one of the deadliest years on record in 2024 with 151 homicides, according to records compiled by AL.com. Birmingham police officers have accused McDaniel and one of other man of committing over 30% of those murders, casting the 22-year old as a central force in the widespread violence that touched hundreds of lives across the city.

“We often say on these crime scenes that we have a few select criminals that add to this crime and give Birmingham a bad name,” Birmingham public information officer Truman Fitzgerald said in November.

McDaniel, who is being held in state prison, maintains his innocence, according to his attorneys. They say that they haven’t seen any evidence yet.

John Robbins, one of the lawyers representing McDaniel, said after the hearing that “the obvious concern is that we can’t get a jury that doesn’t know a whole lot about this case.”

“At some point we will have to discuss whether we can have a fair trial in this county,” Robbins said. He added that his legal team was polling potential jurors across the county.

Owens said she understood Robbins’ concerns about finding jurors without a significant connection to McDaniel’s alleged victims, but she cautioned that it might be impossible to weed out anyone familiar with the accusations against McDaniel, given the impact the shootings had on the city.

“I just don’t want to get to the point where we’re emptying the city of Birmingham” looking for jurors who have no knowledge of the case or connection to victims, Owens said.

Owens clarified that it would be OK to have jurors who knew some victims tangentially, as long as they could be impartial and didn’t know victims “in depth” or “at length.”

A large crowd filled almost all available space in the courtroom on Tuesday. Some wore T-shirts emblazoned with the names and faces of McDaniel’s alleged victims. Some shed tears after the hearing.

Before the start of the hearing McDaniel’s mother and a family member of one of the victims got into an argument, and they were forced to exit the courtroom by court deputies. McDaniel appeared in court wearing a red and pink striped jumpsuit, chained at his wrists and ankles.

Robbins said after the hearing that McDaniel’s mother has received death threats.

“Law enforcement knows about it. They don’t do anything,” Robbins said, adding that he was grateful that law enforcement intervened in the courtroom.

In April, McDaniel will first be tried for the charges related to a mass shooting outside of a nightclub where four people were fatally shot.

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Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.