With jury selection taking most of the day, attorneys in the trial for the death of a Michigan man will make their opening statements Tuesday in the Grand Forks County courthouse.
Fourteen jurors, including two alternates, were selected Monday - eight women and six men - in the murder trial of Ryan Neil Anderson, a Michigan man accused of stabbing his friend Christopher King twice in the abdomen and twice in the chest at a lodge near Tioga, N.D. northeast of Williston last year.
A judge moved the trial from Williston to Grand Forks because of concerns the media coverage would result in an unfair trial.
Anderson was involved in a physical altercation with his girlfriend shortly before King was stabbed in the early morning hours of March 17, 2013 at the Capitol Lodge on U.S. Highway 2 near Tioga.
Court papers state several residents at the lodge intervened, trying to coax Anderson into going to bed. Anderson went into his room and when he returned to the common area, King grabbed him, in an apparent attempt to lead him back to his bedroom.
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That was when Anderson allegedly stabbed King, who then fled and eventually collapsed from his injuries in the lodge parking lot.
Anderson drove King to Tioga Medical Center, where King was pronounced dead and Anderson was arrested.
Anderson is charged with criminal attempted murder, a class A felony, and with murder, a class AA felony. Murder carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
