State v. Cere

The issue in this attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault case is whether the defendant sufficiently raised and preserved his claim that the jury was not fair and impartial. We hold that he did and remand.

The defendant was tried before Contas, J., and a jury which returned a guilty verdict. He was sentenced to not more than ten nor less than five years at hard labor in the State prison. During the empanelling of the jury, counsel approached the bench and defendant’s counsel stated to the court:

“Your Honor, looking at some of the jurors, some of them seem familiar to me; and I don’t know…