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Last updated on Thursday, July 28, 2016
(NASHVILLE) - Jury selection begins today in the murder trial of Daniel Messel.
Just days before, 50-year-old Messell sent Brown County Circuit Court Judge Judith Stewart a letter saying he could no longer work with his court-appointed public defender.
In the four-page letter Messel says his attorney does not have his "best interest at heart." He also claims his attorney Dorie Maryan made him sign stipulations he did not want to say and did not give him enough time to review the detailed questionnaires the 150 jurors will be completing.
He also accused her of inappropriately discussing the case with others can cutting off contact with him.
But during a pretrial hearing Wednesday, he rescinded those comments saying he is now satisfied with his attorney's representation and everything was fine between him and his lawyer.
Messel, a print shop worker from Bloomington, is accused of the beating death of 22-year-old Indiana University student Hannah Wilson on April 24, 2015. Police found Messel's cellphone lying in the grass near her body in a vacant lot at State Road 45 and Plum Creek Road near Helmsburg. Wilson had been reported missing the day before the discovery of her body.
An autopsy determined that Wilson had died from blunt force injuries to the back of her head.
Messel was arrested at his home on Ison Road, where police say they found him with bloody clothes in a garbage bag and Wilson's blood in his car.
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