NORTHAMPTON — Jury selection will continue Wednesday as a second trial gets underway for a former South Hadley man accused of raping a 5-year-old girl more than decade ago.
Guy Bush Jr., 47, of Grand Island, New York, pleaded not guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to charges of forcible rape of a child and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. He was arraigned on the charges in October 2014.
Seventy jurors were whittled down to seven by the end of the day Tuesday through a series of questions. Twenty-one potential jurors raised their hands when asked if, because of the nature of the accusations, they could not be completely open-minded, objective and fair. An even larger number raised their hands when asked a similar question.
As each juror was called up individually to answer questions from the judge, one female juror left the courtroom in tears after being excused from jury duty. Another woman left the judge’s side bench visibly shaken.
By 3:45 p.m., the pool of jurors had been reduced to 20 people — 13 men and seven women. Following questioning from Assistant District Attorney Caleb Weiner and Bush’s attorney David Mintz, 13 of the jurors were dismissed. A total of seven remained. Juror selection will continue into Wednesday, possibly Thursday.
When Mintz asked the potential jurors if they had formed an opinion of the case, one woman responded she had not.
“We all need to hear all the facts in the case,” the woman said. “We need to give this man a fair trial and come to a conclusion at the end.”
A trial was held in May 2016 and following 12 hours of deliberation over two days, the jury returned with a guilty verdict on all counts. Following the verdict, Bush’s former attorney, Jon Heyman, of Northampton, asked that the jurors be individually polled.
After Judge Daniel Ford reluctantly agreed, Clerk of Courts Harry Jekanowski asked each juror to affirm that the verdict was unanimous. After about half the jurors confirmed this was the true verdict, one of them, a young woman, spoke out when it was her turn.
“I think some people didn’t completely agree,” the juror said in court.
Following the case, Bush fired his attorney and told the court he would represent himself at the retrial. He has since acquired an attorney.
Bush has been in custody for at least two years, according to Mintz. He is being held at the Hampshire County Jail on $100,000 bail.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.