In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court jury officer was given the power to pull random people off the streets to be potential jurors in the trial of five teenagers accused of murder.

However, the court opted to use the jury pool for July and August to find potential jurors for the trial of Kellan Jeaurreau Lewis, 17, Kevin Andre Warner, 19, Gary Rupert Hollis, 16, Devon Vonzell Hairston, 17, and Zharrin Frankie Simmons, 17.The quintet pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to murdering Kellon Hill. Lewis further denied possession of a knife, Warner denied having a wooden cane, Hollis and Hairston both denied possession of a protective crash helmet and Simmons denied having a screwdriver, all on August 9 last year.

Mr. Hill was allegedly stabbed to death as he left a late-night party at Elbow Beach, in Paget. The reasoning for using potential jurors from the July and August pool is because they have already been through the vetting process.

Such persons are chosen at random from the registered voters' list, with a background check is done on each of them in advance of their court appearance.If taxpayers were chosen at random off the street, they would then have to go through the vetting process which could take days.

The trial was due to start on Tuesday but a lengthy jury selection took up most of the hearing then and yesterday.

Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons told the court yesterday: "I'm going to put into effect section 17 of the Jurors Act. "Under section 17 a Police officer would have the duty to go outside to summon bystanders into court to fill the vacant seats of the jury subject to the procedure."

Mrs. Justice Simmons explained the two spots to fill could be chosen at random from the July and August list. "Since we have that list it has been agreed that they will speed up the process if the marshall dealt with the persons on that list."

Out of a 69-strong jury pool, only ten were able to serve as jurors.

The other 59 either knew parties to the case, had travel arrangements or were challenged by the defendants.

An additional nine were brought in yesterday but that number was whittled down to three after the other six were excused.

The jury officer was last night attempting to bring in more potential jurors for this morning.

The Crown is represented by Deputy Director of Prosecutions Michael McColm, Robert Welling and Nicole Smith.

Hollis is represented by Saul Froomkin QC, Simmons by Mark Pettingil and Marc Daniels, Warner by Elizabeth Christopher and Narinder Dosanjh, Lewis by John Perry QC and Craig Attridge, and Hairston by Jerome Lynch QC and Allan Doughty.