Jury selection began Monday in the second-degree murder trial of Clayton Whittemore, an Oneida County man accused of killing his girlfriend Alexandra Kogut inside her College at Brockport dorm room in September 2012.
Whittemore, 22, allegedly beat 18-year-old Kogut to death in the early morning hours of Sept. 29, then drove to a rest area along the Thruway in DeWitt, Onondaga County, and turned himself in.
Document: Felony Complaint
In an interview with State Police, Whittemore recounted striking Kogut over and over again with a curling iron after they had gotten in a shoving match back at her dorm room.
"She started pushing me a little bit, hitting me, kind of. Nothing that really hurt me, and that's when I snapped."
Whittemore's attorneys have said they plan to base their defense on what they say was their client's "extreme emotional disturbance" at the time of Kogut's death.
Before jury selection started, Whittemore attorney Mark Curley asked state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Doyle to suppress voicemail evidence unearthed by investigators from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office late last month. That evidence, a series of voicemails left on Kogut's cell phone, would show Whittemore's "aggression and hostility" toward Kogut and the "cycle of domestic abuse" in their relationship, said Assistant District Attorney Meredith Vacca.
Curley argued that the messages were turned over too late for his experts to examine them, and that they all lacked context.
"I have letters from Ms. Kogut professing her affection for him," he said. "I don't think there was a 'cycle of abuse.'"
Doyle denied the motion, telling Curley the messages "didn't present anything shockingly new" and that it is "uncontroverted that the relationship between your client and Ms. Kogut was tumultuous at times."
Doyle told prospective jurors that the trial would likely last three to four weeks.
If convicted, Whittemore faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Whittemore's mother, Sandra Whittemore, was in the courtroom during the proceedings, but she declined to make any public statements.
MCDERMOT@DemocratandCHronicle.com
