Dennis Creamer's murder trial begins Tuesday morning

S. BRADY CALHOUN / News Herald Writer
February 22, 2010 07:00:00 PM

PANAMA CITY — The prospective jurors for the Dennis Creamer murder case were nurses and teachers, construction workers, business owners and at least one retired judge.

One by one, they talked about their jobs, their run-ins with the law and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The fact that many of them had young children — and others had kids on the way — may have played into their responses to a critical question.

“I do not in any way feel that I could be fair or impartial,” one prospective juror said when asked if she could decide Creamer’s fate based solely on the evidence presented at trial. Another prospective juror said she could not sit on the jury because of the publicity surrounding the case.

Creamer, 26, is charged with first-degree murder for the December 2008 death of two-year-old Haley Marie Cain. She was beaten, kicked and thrown on the ground by Creamer, Bay County sheriff’s investigators said.

Haley, Creamer and the girl’s mother lived together as a family, but the mother was not home when the attack happened, officials said. Creamer faces the death penalty if convicted as charged.

One prospective juror identified himself as a retired judge from Alabama.

“I have no prior jury service and I could be fair and impartial,” he said. He was not selected.

Another man said he had one 25-year-old son. When asked about his son’s career, the man said he did not currently have one.

“Well, he’s in prison right now,” that prospective juror replied. He was not selected, either.

In the end, Prosecutor Larry Basford and Assistant Public Defender Kim Dowgul questioned 160 people and pared them down to 14 — 12 jurors and two alternates.

Basford wanted to know if the drug and alcohol use by some of the participants in the case would change the way jurors felt about the evidence. He also asked if they had any strong religious convictions that would affect their ability to be jurors and if they believed that adults should be held accountable for their actions.

“Would any of you require Mr. Creamer to testify in this case?” Dowgul asked at one point. She also wondered if the jurors would give more weight to testimony of law enforcement officers than they would to other people and cautioned them against voting guilty simply because “the judge will fix it” if they were wrong.

Creamer’s trial begins Tuesday morning.

http://www.newsherald.com/news/killer-81665-accused-panama.html





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