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Eric Frein, 33,
of Canadensis, faces the death penalty if he is convicted of the
top charge of first-degree murder of a law-enforcement officer,
Corporal Bryan Dickson II. He is also charged with the attempted
murder of Trooper Alex Douglass, who was wounded in the attack,
and terrorism.
Prosecutors charge that the late-night ambush in the parking lot
of the rural Blooming Grove state police barracks was aimed at
sparking a "revolution." The suspect had harbored
anti-government views for years, they say.
Jury selection was completed last week in Chester County outside
Philadelphia due to intense pre-trial publicity.
Opening statements will begin on Tuesday in Pike County
Courthouse in Milford, where Frein has pleaded innocent to the
charges. The trial was expected to last five to eight weeks.
After the September 2014 ambush, Frein, an experienced
outdoorsman, eluded an intensive, 48-day manhunt through the
dense forests of the Pocono Mountains, about 100 miles north of
Philadelphia, in the northeast corner of the state.
Frein lived at his family's home not far from the barracks where
the ambush took place. After the ambush, he fled into the
surrounding mountains, authorities say.
His ability to elude the $11 million manhunt put him on the
FBI's Most Wanted List and left the community on edge for weeks.
He was captured by U.S. Marshals outside an abandoned airplane
hangar in a former resort near Tannersville, Pennsylvania.
Frein, who took part in Cold War-era battle re-enactments,
studied Russian and Serbian languages and was a member of the
shooting team at Pocono High school.
(Writing by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Frank McGurty and
Bernadette Baum)
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