HAVANA MURDER TRIAL BEGINS

QUINCY - Six years after Constance Dupont was gunned down through
the front window of her Havana apartment, the drug dealer accused of
ordering the confidential informant killed for being a " snitch "
will stand trial for her murder.

Jury selection in the case against Hernandez Lopaz Daniels begins
today. The 36-year-old Daniels, currently serving a life sentence on
federal drug-dealing charges, is the first person to face the death
penalty in Gadsden County in more than a decade.

Assistant State Attorney Richard Combs is saving for trial his reasons
for seeking the maximum punishment against Daniels. But police reports
detail a calculated and brutal crime, which culminated with a knock on
Dupont's window in the early morning hours of Aug. 3, 2002, her
pulling back the blinds and bullets ripping into her chest.

At the time she was killed, the 39-year-old grandmother was working
for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Leon County
Sheriffs Office to bust Daniels for drug crimes. She was recruited by
officers after being caught in a car with cocaine.

Another man, Fernando Taylor, is also charged in her murder. A
jailhouse informant told investigators Taylor said Daniels paid him
$5,000 to kill her. He will be tried separately later. If Daniels is
found guilty and sentenced to death, Taylor also will face the death
penalty, said his attorney Greg Cummings.

Dupont's family has waited a long time to see the inside of a
courtroom. It took more than three years for Daniels and Taylor to be
charged with her murder and another three to see the case brought to
trial.

Dupont's daughter, La Sharka Jones, will be watching from the
spectator benches this week.

" I'll be glad when it's over so I can put it all behind me, "
said the 27-year-old, who spent years plagued by nightmares and
depression. " It's not going to bring her back, but I'll know
justice will be done."

Much of the case against Daniels is built on the statements of inmates
who shared jail cells with him, court records show. He was found
guilty on federal drug trafficking charges in 2003. Prosecutors used
Dupont's killing to help win a conviction in that case.

Witnesses in that case said Daniels learned Dupont was working as a
confidential informant when an officer accidentally answered a cell
phone she had been given to contact him.

Unlike the recent high-profile killing of confidential informant
Rachel Hoffman, Dupont's death received little media attention at
the time, and law enforcement's role in it was never
scrutinized.

Daniels' attorney Clyde Taylor did not return a call for comment.
But court records show the defense will likely focus on the
unreliability of " snitch witnesses'" and witness reports that point
to the possibility that others could have killed Dupont or wanted to
see to see her dead.

Dupont's brother, Bernard Hunter, is optimistic about the outcome of
the trial. But more than anything, he is ready for closure.

" I'm glad it is coming to a head," said Hunter, who will testify
at the trial. "I'm just ready to get it over with because it just
brings back too many memories."