HERMANN — After sitting in jail for almost four years, Christine Elizabeth Weber got her day in court this morning (Monday) — the first of four days scheduled for her first-degree murder trial.

Weber, of Hermann, is charged with the Dec. 15, 2020, shooting death of live-in boyfriend Al Falco. She also faces the felony charge of armed criminal action.

The selection of jurors began this morning (July 15) at about 8:30 with 20th Circuit Presiding Judge Craig Hellmann on the bench. Hellmann told reporters during a recess that the court’s plan is to have the jury selection process — known as “voir dire” — completed by this afternoon with testimony beginning tomorrow morning (Tuesday). The trial, first set through Wednesday, now is expected to last into Thursday.

What began as a list of about 100 potential jurors was whittled to 84. Of those 84 people summoned as potential jurors, all but one showed up this morning, making for an unusually crowded Gasconade County courthouse, which had participants not only for the second-floor large courtroom but also the smaller first-floor Division 4 courtroom.

Dressed in street clothes and taking notes, Weber sat at the defense table alongside attorney Matthew Mueller, smiling and making eye contact with the prospective jurors while Assistant Missouri Attorney General Greg Goodwin spent about three hours questioning the pool of potential jurors. He and fellow Assistant Attorney General Michael Schaefer are taking the lead in prosecuting the case while Gasconade County Prosecuting Attorney Mary E. Weston looked on from a nearby table during today’s proceedings.

Mueller would begin his turn at the process of culling the jury pool shortly before midday and continuing into the afternoon hours.

Based on some of the questions asked by both Goodwin and Mueller, it appears that Weber will be mounting a domestic violence victim case, arguing that she shot Falco in their residence in the 900 block of Goethe Street in an act of self-defense. Based on Mueller’s questioning of the potential jurors, it’s expected that Weber will claim the shooting was the result of what Mueller described as “domestic abuse by Al Falco” which left “bruises all over her body.”

That comment came as some potential jurors said they would be uncomfortable viewing photos taken during the autopsy of Falco’s body and photos taken of bruises resulting from domestic violence incidents.

That prompted an advisory from Hellmann to those potential jurors who might be reluctant to view the photos.

“Just because something is difficult does not make it impossible,” the judge said.

Before Goodwin’s questioning of the jury pool began, Hellmann had an interesting question of his own for the 83 people responding to a summons calling them for duty.

“Are any of you a Sovereign Citizen? If you don’t know what that means, it’s a good thing,” he said.

People who consider themselves part of the Sovereign Citizens Movement have a general dislike of government and a particular antipathy toward the legal system and courts in particular.

Hellmann said he anticipated a shorter day today with a longer day in court expected for the remaining days of the trial.