Jury selection underway in 1981 retrial

LOCKPORT, NY (WIVB) - It was 1981 when the murders of two teens rocked North Tonawanda.

Now - nearly 30 years later - the retrial of Robbie Drake is underway, a retrial that could set the once convicted killer free.

For 27 years Drake tried to get an appeal from prison and finally he has succeeded. Jury selection in his retrial was underway this morning at State Supreme Court in Lockport.

Drake, age 45, obviously looks visibly very different from when he was convicted at 17. This morning he looked visibly confident and ready to be tried again for killing two North Tonawanda fellow classmates.

Legal observers say it's a complex case with many challenges. News 4 legal expert Frank Clark said, "One of the difficulties is that witnesses disappear, they die or move away, and they're not available for trial."

Drake was convicted of killing Amy Smith and Steven Rosenthal as they sat in their car when he shot at it.

Drake's former defense team claimed that the area was commonly used for target practice and that he thought the car was abandoned. The question again will be whether he knew the students were in there when he shot.

"When this happened 27 years ago it shocked the community, everybody was talking about it, everyone knew about it. Well now, it's faded from the public's memory," said Clark.

The retrial is the result of a federal court ruling that the first trial was tainted because a bogus expert witness committed perjury.