Jury seated in downstate double-murder trial

VANDALIA, Ill. — Prosecutors and defense attorneys are ready to address jurors in the murder trial of a southern Illinois teenager accused of gunning down two of his sleeping neighbors in their tiny community.

A jury has been seated in Fayette County in the first-degree murder trial of 16-year-old Clifford Baker.

Baker is accused of fatally shooting 53-year-old Debra Tish and 60-year-old John Mahon in the head in August 2010 in their home in Loogootee (luh-GOH’-tee). That town of just two dozen residents is about 80 miles east of St. Louis.

Baker was 15 at the time and has pleaded not guilty. He remains jailed on $2 million bond.

The judge is allowing Baker’s attorneys to pursue an insanity defense.