The Alabama man accused of killing 18 people in 2023 and 2024, including two mass shootings, will stand trial in April of next year, a judge ruled Tuesday.
However, his attorneys have expressed concerns about the ability to select impartial jurors in a city still reeling from record levels of violence last year.
Damien McDaniel, 22, is facing murder charges in Birmingham, Alabama, for 18 deaths, including eight people killed in two separate mass shootings in July and September.
Jefferson County District Judge Shanta Owens also ruled that prosecutors could seek the death penalty for McDaniel under Alabama law.
Birmingham had one of the deadliest years on record in 2024, with 151 homicides, according to AL.com data.
Birmingham police officers have accused McDaniel and another man of committing more than 30% of those murders, casting the 22-year-old as a central figure in the widespread violence that claimed hundreds of lives throughout the city.
“We often say at these crime scenes that we have a few select criminals that add to this crime and give Birmingham a bad name,” Birmingham public information officer Truman Fitzgerald said in November.
McDaniel, who is being held in a state prison, maintains his innocence, according to his lawyers. They claim they have not seen any evidence yet.
John Robbins, one of McDaniel’s lawyers, stated after the hearing that “the obvious concern is that we can’t get a jury that doesn’t know a whole lot about this case.”
“At some point we will have to discuss whether we can have a fair trial in this county,” Mr. Robbins stated. He also stated that his legal team was polling potential jurors across the county.
Owens said she understood Robbins’ concerns about finding jurors who had no significant connection to McDaniel’s alleged victims, but she warned that given the impact the shootings had on the city, it may be impossible to exclude anyone familiar with the allegations against McDaniel.
“I just don’t want to get to the point where we’re emptying the city of Birmingham” looking for jurors who have no knowledge of the case or ties to the victims, Owens said.
Owens clarified that having jurors who knew some victims tangentially was acceptable as long as they were impartial and did not know victims “in depth” or “at length.”
On Tuesday, a large crowd took up nearly all of the available space in the courtroom. Some wore T-shirts featuring the names and faces of McDaniel’s alleged victims. Following the hearing, some people shed tears.
Before the hearing began, McDaniel’s mother and a family member of one of the victims had an argument, and court deputies forced them to leave the courtroom.
McDaniel appeared in court wearing a red and pink striped jumpsuit with chains around his wrists and ankles.
Robbins stated after the hearing that McDaniel’s mother had received death threats.
“Law enforcement is aware of it. They don’t do anything,” Robbins said, expressing gratitude that law enforcement intervened in the courtroom.
McDaniel will first stand trial in April on charges stemming from a mass shooting outside a nightclub that killed four people.
