Ashlyann M. Lopez-Lopez

Jury selection for the trial of Ashlyann M. Lopez-Lopez, 26, of Dunkirk for the alleged stabbing death of 15-year-old Jefrena Brown will begin on Jan. 7.

The OBSERVER has learned from Chautauqua County DA Patrick Swanson that the pre-trial conference will take place prior to that. A pretrial conference is a meeting of the parties to a case conducted prior to trial and is held before the trial judge or a magistrate, a judicial officer who possesses fewer judicial powers than a judge; it is conducted for several reasons: To expedite disposition of the case, help the court establish managerial control over the case, discourage wasteful pretrial activities, improve the quality of the trial with thorough preparation and facilitate a settlement of the case. A pretrial conference may be held prior to trial in both civil and criminal cases and helps to promote a fair and expeditious trial.

Lopez-Lopez pleaded innocent to second-degree manslaughter on July 2 in Chautauqua County Court in the stabbing of Brown, a Dunkirk High School student who died a day later at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo. The incident took place on May 15 on the 100-block of Lincoln Avenue.

The grand jury, in July, indicted Lopez-Lopez on the reduction of a filed first-degree manslaughter charge, after presentation of known facts; bail was also reduced from $500,000 to $150,000 accordingly.