GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A jury was seated Monday morning for the trial of Garry Dean Artman who, last year, was charged with the 1996 sexual assault and murder of a West Michigan woman.
Artman is accused of killing Sharon Hammack, who was 30 years old at the time of her death.
Investigators discovered Hammack’s body on October 3, 1996, on 76th Street SE, between Patterson Avenue and Kraft Avenue, in Caledonia Township.
Now, Artman is set to stand trial this week in a Kent County courtroom.
Jury selection began first thing Monday morning.
A group of ten men and four women were selected for the jury, along with two standby jurors, just after 11:30 a.m.
Judge Scott A. Noto will preside over this case.
Artman was present in court Monday morning, unrestrained and wearing a blue and white striped shirt.
Court broke for lunch at noon and opening statements are expected to start late Monday afternoon.
Prosecutors said they expect to call three witnesses once court resumes.
When Hammack was killed back in 1996, there was talk in the media that the person responsible for her death could be involved in other similar killings.
Reports from 1996 say six police agencies teamed up to create a task force to investigate the killings of nine women.
“All nine were white women, most had dark hair and many of them had been strangled,” an Associated Press article from 1996 reads. “In each case, police are facing difficulties in finding a killer. Three bodies were so decomposed, investigators didn’t know how they died.”
In fact, a month after charges were announced against Artman for Hammack’s killing, he was also charged with murder in Maryland.
There, he’s accused of killing 24-year-old Dusty Schuck in 2006.
Schuck’s body was found near a truck stop in Frederick County, Maryland.
Maryland State Police said in a press release that, in 2009, they linked the suspect DNA discovered at the crime scene to the 1996 cold case out of Kent County.
The Kent County Prosecutor’s office cited genetic DNA technology for making Artman’s arrest possible when announcing charges against him.
Kent County investigators say they utilized the services of Identifiers International, which works cases using genetic genealogy, to link Artman to the 1996 case.
If convicted of Hammack’s sexual assault and murder, Artman faces the possibility of life in prison.
