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SHAKOPEE, Minn. - With jury selection complete, opening arguments are set to begin March 23 in the trail of a Savage man accused of murdering a babysitter who answered an ad on Craigslist.
Michael John Anderson, 20, (pictured) is charged with first-degree murder in the October, 2007 shooting death 24-year-old Katherine Ann Olson.
According to the criminal complaint, Anderson posted the phony babysitter-for-hire ad on Craigslist, luring Olson to his home in Savage on Oct. 25. The next day, Olson's body was found in the trunk of her car in a Burnsville park.
The first witnesses are also expected to take the stand Monday, including the Olson's parents and the first office to arrive at the murder scene.
Anderson has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys say the shooting was accidental and that Anderson has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism. But the judge ruled that argument insufficient to show that the disorder had anything to do with Olson's death.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From FOX 9 News in Minneapolis:
