JACK WHITTAKER WRONGFUL DEATH TRIAL SET TO BEGIN TODAY

A jury trial is scheduled for this week in a civil suit that contends
Powerball winner Jack Whittaker was negligent in the drug overdose of
an 18-year-old boy who died in his home.

Jury selection was set to begin today in the wrongful death trial in
Putnam Circuit Court.

Whittaker is being sued over the death of 18-year-old Jesse Joe
Tribble, who died after ingesting cocaine and prescription
painkillers in September 2004 while in a Scott Depot house owned by Whittaker.

The trial results from a suit filed in March 2005 by Tribble's
father, James Tribble, who claims Whittaker was responsible for the
teen's death.

Jesse Tribble was a friend of Whittaker's late granddaughter, Brandi Bragg.

The suit alleges that Bragg encouraged and aided Jesse Tribble in
using drugs, blaming Whittaker for not supervising his house and his
granddaughter, of whom he had legal custody.

Bragg did drugs with Jesse Tribble the night he died and then left
him alone after he passed out, according to the suit.

It also says Whittaker, who was out of town when the death occurred,
regularly gave his granddaughter thousands of dollars each week while
knowing she had a drug problem.

Bragg died of a drug overdose several months after Jesse Tribble's
death. Whittaker has said that Jesse Tribble gave his granddaughter
drugs and that Bragg left the house hours before Tribble overdosed.

Putnam County Circuit Court Judge O.C. Spaulding will preside over
the civil case, which is expected to last through March 28 or 29.

Potential jurors will be individually interviewed today and opening
statements are expected to start mid-morning Tuesday, said Tom
Peyton, a lawyer for James Tribble.

"Just because a juror has some knowledge of a party involved or some
knowledge about the case does not automatically disqualify them,"
Peyton said. "The core issue here is whether they can be fair and impartial."

Whittaker's lawyers had tried to have the case heard in a federal
rather than state court, arguing that Whittaker lived in Virginia at
the time of Jesse Tribble's death. They moved the case to federal
court in May 2005, but a U.S. District Court judge later sent it back
to the state court.

The wrongful-death lawsuit is just one of Whittaker's legal woes.

Since winning a record-breaking jackpot of $314 million on Christmas
Day in 2002, he has been involved in a web of lawsuits, charged with
drunken-driving and assault, and been the victim of multiple thieves.