Bluff man's murder retrial starts

WARRENTON, Mo. -- Jury selection began Monday in Warren County for a Poplar Bluff, Mo., man accused of brutally murdering a teen-ager, along with her 73-year-old grandmother.

After several delays, this will be Cecil Barriner's second trial in connection with the deaths of 19-year-old Candance Sisk and her grandmother, Irene Sisk. The Sisks were stabbed to death in their Tallapoosa, Mo., home on Dec. 16, 1996.

Barriner, 40, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by a Dent County jury during a 1999 trial and later sentenced to die.

He is getting a second trial after a five-judge majority of the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that prejudicial evidence and testimony were improperly used at his original trial.

"It will be just like last time," said H. Riley Bock, the New Madrid County prosecuting attorney. "We've played this song before. Obviously, we won't do the things the Supreme Court says we shouldn't do."

However, it will be the "same presentation of evidence," Bock said. "The facts haven't changed and that's what the state presents."

Barriner's new trial is being held in Warren County after two changes of venues.

New venue

According to earlier reports, the new venue was chosen to accommodate Judge Edward D. Hodge who recently had some health problems and didn't feel like traveling with the case.

Bock said he expects jury selection to take at the "very least a day. It could go two days."

According to the Warren County circuit clerk Jerri Jordan, letters were originally sent out to 100 potential jurors.

"Some have been excused," she said. "We'll probably have 80 to 85."

Bock said the trial is expected to again last at least a week. Barriner's original trial began on Monday and went through Saturday.

"Judge Hodge who is hearing the case has some health problems," Bock said. He's indicated he won't go into the evenings as Judge J. Max Price did. That may add to the length of the trial.

During the first trial there were also a lot of objections, which the Supreme Court looked at, Bock said. This time, "there could be fewer bench conferences. That could speed it up."

Bock said the defense has "endorsed" additional witnesses for the penalty phase.