Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

William Morva (above) watches as prospective jury members are interviewed to serve in his attempted robbery trial that began today in Christiansburg. Below, Morva talks with defense attorney Thomas DeBusk during a break.

CHRISTIANSBURG -- After a full day of jury selection, eight men and four women were chosen late Thursday as the jurors who will hear the attempted robbery charges against William Morva, the 25-year-old Blacksburg man who faces separate charges in the August shooting deaths of a hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy.

Morva will go on trial today on eight charges related to a string of failed robbery and break-in attempts at the Deli Mart on Glade Road, the Freedom First Credit Union on Draper Road, the Food Time on Heather Drive and the Burger King on Turner Road, all in Blacksburg, in July and August of 2005.

Morva also faces several charges related to his escape the morning of Aug. 20, 2006, just three days before a scheduled jury trial on the robbery charges.

Among the most recent charges are three counts of capital murder in connection with the deaths of two men. Derrick McFarland, a security guard at Montgomery Regional Hospital, and Cpl. Eric Sutphin of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office were fatally shot after Morva escaped from a deputy's custody at the hospital, where he was being treated for sprains.

A trial on those charges is scheduled to begin Sept. 17 and last two weeks.

Thursday's jury selection process offered a glimpse at the difficulty the court will likely face if it attempts to seat a Montgomery County jury to hear the capital murder case. All but one of the 32 county residents who went through the selection process had heard of Morva, and many admitted they believe he killed Sutphin and McFarland.

One potential juror answered "of course" when asked if he had heard anything about the charges against Morva. Another said her 8-year-old daughter had nightmares about him after his escape.

Morva's defense attorney, Thomas DeBusk, had asked for the trial to be postponed until after Morva goes on trial for the capital murder cases, but Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs denied his request.

In November, Grubbs took under advisement a request by DeBusk for a change of venue. He cited the Pulaski County murder trial of Jeffrey Allen Thomas, whose conviction and death sentence in the 2000 killing of 16-year-old Tara Rose Munsey were overturned by the Virginia Supreme Court. Justices said Circuit Judge Colin Gibb should have granted defense attorneys' request for a change of venue based on the difficulty of seating an impartial jury. It took 4¹₂ days to seat 12 jurors and four alternates.

Thursday, Grubbs denied the change of venue request in the Morva case, noting the relative ease with which a jury was seated in about eight hours, despite DeBusk's objection to every juror.

Morva -- usually handcuffed, wearing a red New River Valley Regional Jail jumpsuit and surrounded by half a dozen deputies -- wore a shirt and tie Thursday. He was free of handcuffs and shackles and sat quietly next to his defense attorney as two uniformed bailiffs stood at the front of the courtroom and two deputies in shirts and ties sat in the audience.

Morva stood and smoothed his burgundy necktie each time he was introduced to potential jurors.

After glancing at his attorney, he pleaded not guilty to the eight charges against him: one count each of attempted robbery, use of a firearm in the attempted commission of robbery, statutory burglary, conspiracy to commit statutory burglary, conspiracy to commit grand larceny and felony destruction of property and two counts of attempted grand larceny.

He had faced 11 charges related to the attempted break-ins, but some were dropped and others amended at the start of Thursday's hearing.

Most of the charges stem from reports that Morva and other men attempted to break into cash machines at the businesses.

But in the Deli Mart incident, police have said, Morva and Jeffery Scott Roberts of Richmond wore ski masks and carried a shotgun and a rifle, both loaded, as they tried to enter the convenience store. They fled after finding that the door had been locked and the business closed for the evening. They were arrested later by Blacksburg police.

Roberts was also charged in the Burger King and Food Time cases. He pleaded guilty in October to charges related to the attempted robbery of Deli Mart and attempted break-in at Food Time and is serving three years in jail. Charges related to the Burger King incident were dropped.

Michael Morva, William Morva's 27-year-old brother who is charged with conspiring to help him escape, was sentenced last month to eight years in prison for his role in attempted break-ins at Freedom First Credit Union and its ATM. He had also been charged in the Food Time break-in but those charges were dropped.

Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs gave Michael Morva such a lengthy sentence after hearing from a fellow inmate who said the elder Morva talked of retaliating against the judge, the prosecutor, his lawyer or their children if he was given jail time.