Judge John Simpson, who was originally assigned to preside over the trial, announced that he was forced to remove himself from the case because of a personal matter.
Simpson said Judge Aubrey Duffey would preside over the case of 28-year-old Bobby Lee Newman, for which 12 jurors were picked Monday, beginning at 9 a.m. today.
Newman is represented by Carrollton attorney Jason Swindle. The prosecuting attorney in the case is Assistant District Attorney Vincent Faucette.
In the vehicular homicide case, Newman is accused of operating a vehicle during a crash in which 27-year-old Todd Goddard of Temple was killed. Newman was indicted on nine counts, including homicide by vehicle, serious injury by vehicle, DUI and making a false statement to police.
According to Franka Young, an official with the Department of Public Safety’s information office, at approximately 1:05 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2012, a 1994 Ford Probe traveling north at high speeds on Center Point Road left the road and overturned when Newman lost control of the vehicle north of Levans Road.
Georgia State Trooper Nicholas Moore, the primary investigator in the accident, said the vehicle ran a stop sign and passed another vehicle in a no-pass zone, which he said led Newman to lose control.
Young said that none of the car’s four occupants were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash and Newman and another passenger, Richard Christopher Evans, 24, of Temple, were ejected when the car overturned. Both Newman and Evans had been seated on the car’s driver side.
Goddard died as a result of the injuries he sustained while sitting in the front passenger seat during the crash, and fellow passenger Christopher Allen Nestick, 26, of Villa Rica was flown to Atlanta Medical Center for treatment.
Moore said that alcohol contributed to the cause of the crash.
The state is expected to call its first witness at 9:30 a.m. today, after a pre-trial hearing.
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