Jury selection began Monday (Dec. 2) in the case of a Franklin County woman accused of killing an Arkansas Highway Department employee at a rest stop in Van Buren last year.
Patricia McClure-Hajek is charged with first degree murder in the death of Sharren Richards. Investigators say Richards was working at the Welcome Center along Interstate 40 when she was shot twice in the neck.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they said McClure-Hajek approached them holding a handgun, and she had, what appeared to be, a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the leg.
McClure-Hajek was arrested and held in the Crawford County Detention Center before being released on $500,000 bond in September.
McClure-Hajek's lawyer, Ryan Norris, contends she is not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.