Jury selection begins in gaming trial

Jury selection got underway Monday in the trial of two men who were allegedly involved in the operation of a gaming house that was raided last year.

Andrew Welsh Craze and Samuel Cory Owen are facing one count each of aggravated gambling promotion -- a class E felony.

The trial is expected to last through today.

Craze and Owen were allegedly two of the card dealers caught in a raid executed Aug. 12 of last year at 101 Tillett Court, where high dollar poker games were held.

Thirty-three people were caught in the raid with seven charged with felonies and 26 others with misdemeanor gambling.

The raid followed an investigation by the Shelbyville Police Department, the 17th Judicial District Drug Task Force, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities took $48,000 in cash, gambling paraphernalia, a small amount of marijuana and firearms in the raid.

The two other card dealers, Neal C. Phillips and Christian E. Jeppsen II, have already pleaded guilty to their involvement.

Special Agents Richard Lewis and Darryl Richardson of the TBI and Special Agent Richard Poff of the FBI are expected to testify, along with Victor Gill, the security guard for the gaming house, other law enforcement officials and two of the players caught the night of the raid.

Assistant District Attorney Mike Randles asked potential jurors if they had read comments left on the Times-Gazette website in connection with published stories about the raid.

Telling jurors there has been "a fair amount of opinion on this story" expressed in the comments, Randles asked if they could be fair in deliberating the case since it appeared there was much debate on the website over whether gambling should be illegal or permitted and if "the police should spend their time on something else."

In July, the alleged ringleaders of the gaming operation, James Chad Tucker and his wife, Christina Tucker, entered guilty pleas in Eastern District Federal Court in Chattanooga.

The Tuckers were indicted in March on violation of 18 USC 1955, prohibition of illegal gambling businesses, according to federal court documents.

The couple, who could be facing possible maximum sentences of five years each, are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 26 before District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr.

Last September 15 people who were facing the misdemeanor charges pleaded guilty, paid fines and court costs totaling $327 each and gave up any money was seized during the raid of the gaming house.

Craze is represented by attorney Kirk Catron and Owen is represented by Derek Howell.