AUBURN – Opening arguments are set to begin at 9 this morning as the state tries to prove that Roger Keene kidnapped and killed Leslie Stasulis in September 2003.

A jury of eight men and six women was seated Monday after six hours of questioning by Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese and defense lawyer George Hess. Justice Thomas D. Warren, who will try the case, presided over the selection process.

Keene, 40, a former mechanic at a tire shop in Brunswick, is accused of manslaughter, attempted murder and kidnapping in Stasulis’ death.

The Livermore woman, who was 42 at the time, was found battered and unconscious beside Route 126 in Sabattus on Sept. 12, 2003. A mother of five, she died nine days later at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston after her family had her removed from life support.

Witnesses reported seeing Stasulis and Keene fighting outside the bar she owned the evening before the badly beaten Stasulis was found in Sabattus.