MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — After more than two days of questioning and screening, a jury has been seated in the trial of Jeffrey Willis.
The announcement came shortly after noon Thursday. The jury is expected to gather in the courtroom at 1:30 p.m. where the judge will give instructions. Opening statements by the prosecution team will follow.
Willis is accused of shooting and killing Rebekah Bletsch as she jogged near her home in Dalton Township in June 2014. Bletsch, 36, left behind a husband and daughter.
Willis, 47, of Muskegon Township, was arrested in May 2016, the month after police say he tried to abduct a teen girl as she walked in Fruitland Township. Investigators say Willis’ gun jammed twice when he tried to shoot her as she fled.
He is also charged with kidnapping and killing Jessica Heeringa, who vanished from the Norton Shores gas station where she worked in April 2013 and whose remains have not been found. Willis’ cousin, Kevin Bluhm, is charged as an accessory after the fact in that case. Authorities say Bluhm helped Willis bury Heeringa, but that her body was later moved.
The trial in Heeringa’s murder has not yet been set.
>>App users: Interactive timeline of Willis investigation