The largest murder trial the county district court has ever seen will start tomorrow as Paul Gutierrez Jr.

Monday, February 18, 2002

The largest murder trial the county district court has ever seen will start tomorrow as Paul Gutierrez Jr., accused of killing 18-month-old Makio Lynn Radke, will face a jury trial on charges of first-degree murder, by child abuse and sexual conduct, and one charge of second-degree murder.

This is the first murder trial in the county since March 1992, and definitely the biggest in the county’s entire history in terms of its length – three weeks – and the number of witnesses – 107 names are on the witness list.

Jury selection alone may take full two days, County Attorney Craig Nelson anticipates. A 60-member prospective jury pool will be called on Tuesday to be questioned by Judge James Broberg, defense attorney Michael York and chief prosecutor William F. Klumpp Jr.

The questioning will be conducted in an unusual one-on-one interview style, according to Nelson. The county board’s meeting room will be used for the jury’s waiting room, driving out the board meeting on Tuesday, which will be held in a drivers’ license examination room.

Gutierrez is accused of being responsible for the death of Radke, who was taken to the Albert Lea Medical Center emergency room on April 21 last year and pronounced dead.

According to the criminal complaint, an autopsy determined that &uot;the cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries due to blunt trauma to the thorax and abdominal regions due to child abuse.&uot;

Radke had been in the care of Gutierrez while his mother was out, and investigators said the child was in Gutierrez’s exclusive control from 1 p.m. April 20 to 1 a.m. April 21.

York filed a series of motions including requests for a change of venue and suppression of evidence regarding Gutierrez’s past misconduct.

Broberg denied the motions while he granted a motion by Klumpp asking for the prosecutor to impeach Gutierrez with his past convictions for felony theft, use of false identification, and fifth-degree controlled substance crime.

The witnesses include Peggy Lynn Radke, mother of Makio, and Makio’s four-year-old sister. A number of investigators from the city police, sheriff’s office and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and medical examiners as well as a child abuse specialist from the county human services department are also on the list.