JACKSONVILLE - Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a former air traffic controller accused of rigging a bomb disguised as a Christmas gift that exploded and killed his ex-wife after she found it on her doorstep.
William Joe Jarvis, 42, is charged with first-degree murder and arson in the January 2001 slaying of Lillian Jarvis, 44. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
The bomb was in a tackle box wrapped in brightly colored paper that appeared at the door of the home Lillian Jarvis shared with her mother, stepfather, boyfriend and daughter.
She took the package to the bathroom, where it exploded as she tried to open it, killing her and injuring her mother and boyfriend.
The couple's divorce had been bitter, and Jarvis was ordered to pay his ex-wife more than $44,000 plus nearly $1,900 a month in child support and alimony. A friend of William Jarvis told Jacksonville police he had bragged that she wouldn't live to collect the money and discussed building a bomb in a tackle box, authorities said.
Jarvis has maintained his innocence, predicting in one letter to Circuit Judge Waddell Wallace that he will be vindicated.
Newspaper takes autopsy photos case to high court
GAINESVILLE - The student-run newspaper at the University of Florida asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to overturn Florida court decisions upholding a state law barring public access to autopsy photos.
The Independent Florida Alligator argues that the law passed after race car driver Dale Earnhardt's 2001 death is unconstitutional.
In July, Florida's Supreme Court, without explanation, declined to review a challenge to the judgment of a district court of appeal upholding the law.
Attorney Tom Julin said the newspaper believes the law violates the First Amendment.
The Alligator and other papers asked for the autopsy photos as questions arose over how Earnhardt died and whether better safety equipment might have saved him. Until the law was passed at the urging of Earnhardt's family, autopsy photos had been public records.
Proponents say the measure protects families of the deceased from seeing their autopsy photos published or on the Internet.
Group sues to protect Panhandle mouse species
TALLAHASSEE - An environmental group sued Monday to force the federal government to help protect an endangered mouse found only on a Florida Panhandle peninsula.
The Center for Biological Diversity wants the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate a critical habitat for the St. Andrew beach mouse, an endangered species since 1998.
About 300 to 500 of the mice live in dunes mostly in the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.
Fish and Wildlife officials did not immediately return calls.
In a June lawsuit, the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity accused the federal agency of failing to protect dunes vital to Alabama, Perdido and Choctawhatchee beach mice.
