This Day in Norwood History-March 3, 1955-Peter Makarewicz Goes on Trial Next Monday in Murder of Geraldine Annese

May Require Two Days To Select Jury

By E. V. McLEAN

Peler Makarewicz, 15-year-old South Norwood youth who is charged with the strangle slaying of his neighbor and school chum, Geraldine Annese on the night of last November 4, will go on trial for his life in the Norfolk Superior Criminal Court at Dedham on Monday morning. Judge Louis Goldberg will preside at the trial that may last over a week.

Manacled to a deputy sheriff, the young accused slayer will be brought to the courtroom from the Dedham Jail where he has been confined since his arrest on November 5. He will sit in the prisoner’s docket all during the trial.

The first item of business as the trial gets underway will be the selection of a jury which is expected to take at least two days. A voir dire of 50 jurymen and women has been summoned to be at the courthouse at 9:00 a.m on Monday and from this group, called from the 8 towns and the City of Quincy that comprise Norfolk County, the actual jury of 14 that will decide the guilt or innocence of Peter Makarewiez will be chosen. Defense Counsel, Atty Louis Goldstein of Roxbury, and Dist. Attorney Myron Lane, chief law enforcement officer of the County, will have the right to challenge the respective jurors as they are called, and the accused can also enter into the selection of the jurors through his counsel.

The jury selected will be required, as is the law in all capital crime cases, to remain at the courthouse for the duration of the trial and will sleep in special quarters. They will he taken out for their meals under the watchful eyes of several deputy sheriffs, and if the trial continues longer than a week are usually taken for a bus rule on a Sunday. All communication with their families will be banned except in the case of dire emergency, when any message of such urgency will be relayed to the juror in question by a deputy sheriff.

For the past two weeks, both the defense and prosecution have been busy preparing their cases and dozens of witnesses for both sides have been interrogated and briefed on court procedure.

Police Chief Mark Folan and Dist Attorney Myron Lane have had numerous conferences on the case, and Atty Louis Goldstein and his client have been closeted for hours at the Dedham Jail as they went over the defense plans.

A score of school chums and neighbors of Peter Makarewicz and Geraldine Annese will appear at the courthouse during the trial to give testimony, and all parties concerned with the crime have been summonsed to appear.