Seth Brunell appears remotely for a previous hearing on Oct. 2, 2024. ScreenshotHYDE PARK — The trial of the man charged with the murder of Fern Feather, a transgender Hinesburg woman, began Monday, nearly three years to the day after Feather’s death. Seth Brunell, 46, has pleaded not guilty to a second-degree murder charge for the killing of Feather, 29, on April 12, 2022. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison. According to charging documents, Brunell had told law enforcement officers in 2022 that Feather had picked him up while he was hitchhiking. The pair spent several days together before Brunell allegedly stabbed Feather to death, according to Brunell and others. He told police officers at the time that he was acting in self defense, and that Feather had sexually propositioned him and then attacked him when he turned them down. READ MORE Killing of transgender woman in Vermont draws condemnation, grief by Peter D'Auria April 13, 2022, 9:25 pmApril 13, 2022, 9:36 pm The first full day of the case — which has already seen months of delays — was taken up by jury selection, in which the prosecutor and defense attorney asked a pool of potential jurors a series of questions. Aliena Gerhard, the Lamoille County state’s attorney, asked possible jurors about their opinions on LGBTQ+ people. Asking for a show of hands, Gerhard asked, “Do any of you have moral or religious beliefs against transsexuality?” No hands went up. “Do any of you have moral or religious beliefs against homosexuality?” Gerhard asked, again eliciting no hands. But another question — whether potential jurors were annoyed by questions about their pronouns — drew a few raised hands, as did the question, “Do you think that there should be only two genders?”Questions from Jessica Burke, the attorney representing Brunell, took a different tack. Burke, a lawyer with Burlington firm Burke Law, asked: Were jurors generally able to change their minds when presented with new evidence? Had possible jurors ever been provoked by anyone, or ever felt trapped? If someone causes the death of someone else, does that necessarily amount to murder?On Monday, Brunell was dressed in a light blue dress shirt and sported a neatly pulled-back ponytail. For most of the day, he sat quietly with a placid expression, sometimes writing notes or speaking with his attorneys.Brunell is being charged separately with attempting to escape from St. Johnsbury’s Northeast Correctional Complex in April 2023, when he allegedly tried to scale a fence with the help of sheets knotted together. By midafternoon, after much shuffling in the jury box, the court finally selected 16 possible jurors, 12 of whom will be randomly selected to actually serve at the end of the case. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a jury,” Lamoille County Superior Court Judge Mary Morrissey said around 3:10 p.m., to applause. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in the case, which is expected to last roughly a week.Read the story on VTDigger here: Jury selected for murder trial of Seth Brunell in killing of Fern Feather . ...read more read less