Jury chosen, opening statements expected in child death case

<p>A jury was selected and opening arguments were expected Tuesday in the case of a suburban Atlanta couple accused of killing their 8-year-old son.</p><p>Prosecution and defense attorneys settled on a panel of four men and 10 woman to hear evidence about the death of Josef Smith. The group includes two alternates, but officials did not say which jurors are the alternates.</p><p>The boy's parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith have been charged with murder in his October 2003 death. They are accused of confining him and fatally beating him, according to a Cobb County Superior Court indictment.</p><p>The Mableton, Ga., couple has been charged with four counts of murder, five counts of first-degree cruelty to children, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of false imprisonment, according to a 14-count indictment issued in June. Mableton is 12 miles northwest of Atlanta.</p><p>On Oct. 8, 2003, police and emergency medical personnel went to the couple's home to respond to a report of an unresponsive 8-year-old child _ Josef Smith _ who later died at a children's hospital, according to a criminal warrant filed in the case.</p><p>Authorities found "an enormous amount of different injuries on the back side" of the child's body and "a recent bruising and swelling to the head and shoulder area," the warrant said.</p><p>Investigators said in the warrant the child had been struck with a glue stick "causing blood to show through the 8-year-old's underwear" and that he had been locked in a closet and made to pray to a picture of Jesus on the closet's ceiling. They said in the warrant that despite acknowledging the bloodied underwear, the Smiths had deprived the child of medical care.</p><p>The Smiths are members of the Franklin, Tenn.-based Remnant Fellowship Church, which grew out of church leader Gwen Shamblin's Weigh Down Workshop, a Christian diet program she created in 1986. Authorities raided the church in June 2004 as part of the investigation of Josef Smith's death.</p><p>Former Remnant members have suggested to investigators and reporters that church teachings on discipline include corporal punishment.</p><p>Shamblin previously said the church leaves discipline to parents but believes in spankings as a last report. She also said critics fooled former Remnant members into believing they were part of a cult.</p>