Several pending murder cases, including one that could result in a death penalty, might be among the 90 or so reviewed by 18 Warren County voters tapped for service as grand jurors meet this week.

Tyler Lee Smith, 51, 3105 N. Washington St., was arrested Nov. 6 and charged with capital murder in the July 23, 2008, shooting death of Walter Cole, who had retired after a law enforcement career that included serving as assistant chief of the Vicksburg Police Department. Cole was also believed robbed, which elevates the murder charge to a capital crime.

District Attorney Ricky Smith said Friday he anticipated presenting the case to the grand jury that will decide whether there’s enough evidence for a trial and the appropriate formal charge. There has not been a capital case originating in Warren County in at least 25 years.

Smith was noncommittal about the cases of other homicide suspects arrested in recent months. “All of those arrests have occurred since the last grand jury,” he said Friday, regarding arrests in the deaths of 16-year-old Terry Robinson on New Year’s Eve, local cab company owner James Buie in 2007 and Letitia Street resident Kennado Caples in 2005. “I’m not sure we’ve been able to get those prepared yet.”

The grand jury was selected and sworn in this morning from a pool of about 250 city and county residents chosen at random from voter rolls.

Circuit Judge M. James Chaney is presiding.

Other cases Smith said he anticipated being on tap include those against two men arrested for cooking methamphetamine in a home on Lovers Lane with a 4-year-old child present, and four teens charged in a series of armed robberies last spring.

Jimmy Cogan II, 30, 119 Lovers Lane, and Sherman Brewer Jr., 28, 1208 Mallet Road, were arrested Aug. 11 at Cogan’s home by Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics agents and Vicksburg police. Cogan’s son was at the home when officials arrived and found the two men cooking the highly volatile drug, police said. They face charges of manufacturing crystal methamphetamine and child endangerment.

Charges of armed robbery may also be reviewed against former Warren Central High School basketball star Sha’Kayla Caples, 18, 414 Ford Road; Deshawn Williams, 17, 119-B Elizabeth Circle; Jacorey Wright, 16, 1405 Locust St.; and Blake Reed, 17, 2501 Culkin Road Apt. G8.

The teens are accused in a spate of armed robberies of pedestrians last May, some of them involving beatings.

The case against the four has been pending through the last two grand juries, but Smith had said previously that evidence was still being compiled.

A number of other drug and property cases are also on the list for this term, he said.

Most cases will be presented by Smith and assistant district attorneys Dewey Arthur, Angela Carpenter and Lane Campbell, with testimony by law enforcement officials and supporting documentation, including transcripts of interrogations, prepared by police or sheriff’s deputies.

Cases can also be presented by County Prosecutor Ricky Johnson as well as the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.

Duties of the grand jury include touring the jail and preparing a report with recommendations about judicial needs and facilities in the county.

Warren County’s grand jury convenes four times each year. The next sessions are scheduled for May 3, July 26 and Oct. 11.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com