By Katherine Sayre
Press-Register
April 6, 2010
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/trial_of_preacher_accused_of_s.html
MOBILE (AL) -- Once a traveling evangelist leading church revivals, Anthony Jujuan Hopkins on Monday faced a courtroom of potential jurors who would hear prosecutors attempt to prove that Hopkins killed his wife and stuffed her body into a freezer.
He killed her after she discovered him sexually abusing his stepdaughter, prosecutors said.
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| Anthony Hopkins is pictured during jury selection Monday, April 5, 2010, in Mobile, Ala. The part-time south Alabama evangelist faces life in prison in the death of his wife, a mother of eight whose body had been stored in a freezer inside his home for at least three years before it was discovered by investigators. Hopkins also faces charges of sexual abuse, rape, sodomy and incest. Photo by Mike Kittrell |
Hopkins, 39, faces charges of murder, second-degree rape, second-degree sodomy, second-degree sex abuse and incest.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys questioned 50 potential jurors in the first day of his trial in Mobile County Circuit Judge John Lockett's courtroom. Opening arguments are expected to begin today.
Hopkins' 19-year-old stepdaughter came forward in 2008 and told authorities that her mother, Arletha Hopkins, kicked her father out of the house in December 2004 because he was abusing the stepdaughter, according to court records.
The next morning, the girl told police, Anthony Hopkins asked her to help hide her mother's body.
After burying Arletha Hopkins near a church in Jackson, Ala., Anthony Hopkins later moved the body into a freezer in the utility room of their house in Mobile, prosecutors said, where it was stored until police found it in July 2008.
During a pretrial hearing Monday, Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Ashley Rich said prosecutors will show "the continued pattern of abuse and sex and mind games and control" that resulted in the stepdaughter not reporting the killing until four years later.
The Hopkins household included eight children. Prosecutors have said the two eldest were Arletha Hopkins' children from a previous marriage, while the other six were Anthony and Arletha Hopkins' children together.
Three or four of the Hopkins children are expected to testify in the trial, prosecutors said.
During jury questioning, prosecutors and defense attorneys asked about a range of topics, including sexual assault, religion and abortion.
Only four out of 50 people told the judge that they had not seen or read any news reports about this case.
One woman told prosecutors that she had seen the defendant and his daughters perform as a music group called the Hopkins Singers at Prichard Stadium.
Prosecutors also asked whether anyone in the jury pool was opposed to abortion.
Rich said the stepdaughter, who is expected to testify in the case, had one abortion and one miscarriage after Hopkins forced her to have sex with him. She also gave birth in November 2008, and prosecutors say Hopkins is the father.
Defense attorney Jeff Deen asked jurors whether anyone thought preachers should be held to a higher standard of behavior.
"He's charged with murder," Deen said later. "He's not charged with having a body in a freezer.
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