Thursday, June 8, 2000 Older Editions

Jury selected in Kartell murder trial; Deciding the doctor's fate

By Ethan Paquin

The fate of Dr. James Kartell will be decided by 11 men and five women, as jury selection has ended and the first-degree murder trial of the former Andover plastic surgeon will begin today.

The selection process, which began Monday and concluded Tuesday at about 4 p.m., included more than 200 potential jurors from the Essex County area, most of them middle-aged or college students. All but three were white.

Opening arguments begin tomorrow morning in the case, in which Kartell stands accused of murdering his estranged wife's fiance on Feb. 23, 1999, in the Holy Family Hospital room where she lay recovering from pneumonia.

Janos Vajda, 56, a North Andover engineer, was visiting Suzan Kamm in Room 440 when Kartell entered the room. A fight ensued, and Vajda was shot in the stomach and head by Kartell.

Immediately following the altercation, Kamm told a state police officer that Kartell had said, "Now you are going to get it," before firing the shot to the head of an already injured Vajda.

Prosecutor Frederick McAlary claims the relationship between Kamm and Vajda led Kartell to shoot Vajda. Kamm had recently moved in with Vajda and has referred to him as "her betrothed."

Defense attorney J.W. Carney Jr. says Kartell shot Vajda in self-defense, to avoid a severe beating he was receiving from the larger Vajda.

Kartell, 61, who had been married to Kamm for 32 years and practiced throughout the Merrimack Valley for more than 20 years, sat attentively throughout the tedious, two-day proceedings.

Wearing a light blue shirt, blue-gray suit coat, and red and blue striped tie Tuesday he occasionally leaned closer to his lawyers' notepads, removed his glasses to rub his eyes, or scratched his head. During a lunch break he stayed in the courtroom, leaving only momentarily for a cup of water.

Judge Isaac Borenstein, after weeding out 40 potential jurors Monday, set toward gathering a pool of 48 from which prosecutors and defense attorneys would finally select 16 to hear the case -- 14 regular jurors and two alternates.

Those who said they had formed opinions on the case, which has received publicity throughout New England, were dismissed by Borenstein, who also asked questions including:

o Whether one belonged to organizations that advocate or oppose the use or possession of firearms. Similarly, Borenstein asked whether one had opinions on people who are licensed to carry concealed firearms. Kartell had a concealed weapons permit, though he brought the gun into the hospital in violation of hospital rules.

o What opinions one had for members of the medical community. Borenstein went on to ask more specifically whether one had "strong feelings about plastic surgeons" or plastic surgery.

o Whether one would believe the testimony of a police officer over a civilian witness solely because of the officer's "status." Five Massachusetts state troopers and seven Methuen police officers appear on witness lists, along with about 70 other potential witnesses.

Also appearing on prosecution and defense lists are two Andover residents, Holy Family president William Lane and Klara Vajda, the former wife of the victim. Kamm has also been reserved for testimony, although McAlary said last week he was unsure whether Kamm would take the stand or invoke espousal immunity.

Just as the faces and names of potential jurors were varied, so too were the reasons some were excluded from sitting on the jury.

One claimed to have been in Holy Family Hospital during the incident, and another said her mother knew Kartell and called him "a very nice man." Both were dismissed.

So too was an older woman who said she would have trouble seeing "graphic images" of the crime scene, and another who said she would find it "hard to decide someone's fate."

Borenstein said he expects testimony to end the week of June 19, at one point exhorting jurors to take as much time as they needed to reach a verdict.

The courthouse was quiet Tuesday, with few reporters and no onlookers filling Borenstein's first floor courtroom -- but the judge apparently expects that to change. He has set aside a separate room for reporters to gather in, where they can watch the trial by video feed.