Jury selected in Bradenton double-murder case

A jury has been chosen in the trial of one of two men still facing charges in the 2015 fatal shooting of a Bradenton couple during a home invasion while their five children were home.

Trey Nonnombre, 20, is facing two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed home invasion in the slaying of Esther Deneus and her boyfriend, Kantral Markeith Brooks, both 29. If convicted of the first-degree murder, the state will seek the death penalty.

Deneus and Brooks were found shot dead just before 4 a.m. July 9, 2015, when Bradenton police were called to the 3900 block of Southern Parkway after a security alarm was triggered by the break-in at the home the couple shared across the street from Robert H. Prine Elementary School.

The couple’s five children, between the ages of 1 and 11 at the time, were not injured but were near their parents’ bodies when police arrived.

Following a five-day process, a jury of 14 — six women and eight men — that includes two alternates were selected on Friday afternoon.

Jury selection began on Monday with more than 150 potential jurors summoned.

For four days, potential jurors went through the individual voir dire process. Assistant State Attorneys Art Brown and Rebecca Muller and defense attorneys Daniel Hernandez and Bjorn Brunvand were only permitted to ask about their prior knowledge of the case because of media attention it received, scheduling hardships and regarding any strong feeling that may have for or against the death penalty during individual questioning.

On Friday, the 54 potential jurors who remained returned for the general jury selection process, and by 4 p.m. attorneys had chosen the panel.

Circuit Judge Diana Moreland swore in members of the jury and gave them instructions before releasing them for the weekend.

Opening arguments are set to begin Monday morning.

One of Nonombre’s co-defendants, Terez Jones, took a plea deal in May and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder with a firearm and armed burglary. Jones, 35, was sentenced to 25 years of prison but as a condition of his deal will have to testify truthfully against Nonnombre and a third co-defendant, Jimmie McNear.

McNear, 20, is set to stand trial on identical charges as Nonnombre during a five-week trial period that begins Oct. 16, after the conclusion of another death penalty case in Sarasota that Moreland is presiding over.

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Jury selected in Bradenton double-murder case."