Jury selection begins for trial of felon accused of killing baby in Palm Desert crash
Jury selection began today in the trial of a felon accused of killing his infant daughter in a high-speed crash on the south end of Palm Desert.
Marcus Novell Green, 58, of Thermal, is charged with second-degree murder, child cruelty and a sentence-enhancing great bodily injury allegation for the June 2016 death of 5-month-old Armani Green.
Green's case has been stalled in the court system for the last seven years. The matter was transferred out of the Larson Justice Center in Indio, where the docket is clogged, to the Riverside Hall of Justice toward the end of last week.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst summoned multiple panels of prospective jurors to the downtown courthouse Monday for screening as to their availability and qualifications.
Opening statements in the trial are tentatively set for Wednesday morning.
Green is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
His ex-girlfriend, 29-year-old Kristen Lauer of Rancho Mirage, pleaded guilty in 2019 to second-degree murder and child cruelty and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Burke Strunsky to a lifetime term of probation.
Strunsky justified the sentence by pointing to the physical impairments, including a brain injury, Lauer suffered because of the wreck and lessening the part she played in it, describing hers as a "neglectful criminal act," not a deliberate one.
The District Attorney's Office had sought a minimum 15-year prison term for the woman.
Armani was sitting on her mother's lap, not restrained in a car seat, when the crash occurred on the winding, narrow two-lane highway.
According to the District Attorney's Office, Green was likely driving up to 60 mph on a segment of the corridor where the speed limit is 30 mph due to steering hazards.
The defendant was at the wheel of a modified 2015 Porsche sports coupe and lost control, causing the vehicle to skid toward the shoulder and plow through a guardrail, after which the Porsche plunged down a 200-foot embankment, prosecutors said.
Armani was hurled 90 feet from the car when it overturned, suffering catastrophic injuries. The infant was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics less than an hour later.
Thomas Carlson, a California Highway Patrol forensic mechanic, testified during Green's February 2019 preliminary hearing that the car had no major mechanical issues that might have contributed to the crash. He said the right rear tire was leaking, but not enough to trigger the crash.
According to court records, Green has prior convictions for firearm assault, robbery and theft going back to the early 1990s.
