Text message case ready for trial

BEAUFORT (AP) — A judge decided jurors will be able to hear that a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in an underground bunker told the officer that arrested him that he knew he was going to prison for a long time.

A jury of seven women and five men was chosen Monday for Vinson Filyaw's trial, along with three alternates.

Filyaw, 37, faces 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct, one for each day prosecutors say he held the girl captive one year ago in Kershaw County. Each carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. He also is charged with kidnapping, impersonating an officer and possession of an incendiary device

Once the jury was chosen, the judge sent them home until opening arguments today and heard pretrial motions. One of those motions was whether to allow jurors to hear testimony from the officer who arrested Filyaw.

Filyaw "made a statement that he knew he was going to prison for a long time," said Kershaw County Sheriff's Capt. David Thomley.

Filyaw's lawyer argued the statement to the officer referred to charges already filed against Filyaw accusing him of abusing a 12-year-old girl.

Judge G. Thomas Cooper ruled the statement would be allowed, but witnesses could not talk about the abuse allegations concerning the 12-year-old girl.

During other pretrial arguments, Cooper said that he will review letters that Filyaw wrote to a Columbia television station after his arrest.

Prosecutors want the letters, which they characterized as "confessions." Defense lawyers said the notes were improperly seized.

Media lawyer Jay Bender argued that television station WLTX should not be required to turn over letters it has received from Filyaw since his September 2006 arrest because it would intrude on their newsgathering.

Copper said he would decide before opening statements today whether prosecutors could review the letters.

Filyaw's trial was moved nearly 200 miles from Kershaw County to Beaufort County in the state's southern tip for fear publicity would interfere with him getting a fair trial. The case gained national attention after authorities said the girl saved herself by using a cell phone to summon help after being held more than a week.

About one-third of the 100 potential jurors told the judge they had seen or heard media accounts of the case. Of those, only nine said they felt they could not be impartial because of their knowledge of the case.

Cooper also read off the names of more than five dozen potential witnesses in the case, including the alleged victim, her mother and three dozen law enforcement officers. The teen and her family sat in a back corner of the courtroom on Monday.

The Associated Press normally does not identify people alleging sexual assault.

Filyaw's mother, Ginger Nell Cobb, also was at the courthouse Monday, viewing the proceedings from a glassed-in conference room at the back of the courtroom.

Cobb, along with Filyaw's girlfriend, Cynthia Hall, have been charged with helping him elude authorities. Officials say Cobb brought food and supplies to Hall, who would leave them for Filyaw to retrieve from an abandoned vehicle near his bunkers.