Five Jurors Set for Tyson Trial : Jurisprudence: Judge in rape case hopes to have the rest of the jury chosen today. Fifty-two witnesses are listed.

INDIANAPOLIS — Five jurors were selected Monday to serve at former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson’s rape trial.

Jury selection will continue today. Judge Patricia J. Gifford predicted last week that a 12-person jury and four alternates would be selected in two days.

Tyson, who faces up to 63 years in prison if convicted of raping an 18-year-old Rhode Island woman here last July 19, seemed to be an active participant in the jury selection process at the Marion County Courthouse.

He sat behind his lead attorneys, Vincent J. Fuller and James Voyles, taking notes and often leaning forward to whisper to Fuller.

When Gifford called a recess at 6 p.m., one black and four white jurors had been chosen. Four of the jurors were men.

Tyson denies the charges and says the woman consented to sex.

Prosecuting attorney Greg Garrison predicted that a jury will be seated today, but he wouldn’t predict if the trial would last only two weeks, as Gifford had.

“Too soon to tell,” he said.

A list of 52 witnesses to be called was released. It includes numerous women who, along with Tyson’s accuser, were entrants in the Miss Black American pageant last July. Also named and expected to testify for Tyson were rock singers Johnny Gill and B. Angie B.

Reporters awaiting Tyson’s arrival began lining up outside the courthouse at 7 a.m. A dozen members of the New York-based volunteer security group, the Guardian Angels, marched and chanted on the sidewalk, carrying picket signs.

One sign: “Rape Isn’t Nice--Why Should the Victim Pay the Price?”

The Guardian Angels also have been picketing the Canterbury Hotel, where Tyson’s attorneys are lodged. That also is where the alleged rape occurred.

Tyson, Fuller and the boxer’s aides, John Horne and Rory Holloway, arrived at the courthouse in a white Cadillac at 8:53 a.m. Tyson, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, red tie and black overcoat, went quickly through the door and upstairs to the courtroom.

He said nothing, acknowledged no one, but nonetheless caused a stir. A few in the crowd had words of encouragement.

An hour and a half later, as jury selection was beginning, Don King, Tyson’s promoter, entered the courthouse and promptly conducted an impromptu but low-key news conference in the basement media room.

He expressed concern over what he said was a small number of minorities in the pool of prospective jurors.

“All (Tyson is) asking is that he be judged by his peers, like it says in the Constitution,” King said.

In pretrial motions, Tyson attorney Voyles asked that the pool be expanded beyond voter registration rolls, citing a 22% minority population of Marion County and a 17-day period in 1990 when only 12% of jurors selected here were minorities.

Gifford denied that motion and also denied Fuller’s request early Monday that the entire jury pool be dismissed.

The same theme was pursued Monday morning by a group of Indiana black leaders, headed by the Rev. Thomas L. Brown, executive vice president of the Indiana Christian Leadership Conference. Shortly before Tyson’s arrival, a written statement was passed out, reading, in part: “We are compelled . . . to speak on a seemingly obvious injustice of Do (sic) Process of legal procedure that seems Un-American.

“Marion County’s jury selection (process) violates the fair cross-section representation requirement which is inherent in the Constitution.”

Trial Notes

Promoter Don King said that Mike Tyson is “in training for the (Evander) Holyfield fight” during the trial. He said the former heavyweight champion ran three or four miles early Monday. And judging by Tyson’s appearance--he looked as if he weighs about 250 pounds--he needed it. . . . Vincent J. Fuller of Washington, Tyson’s lead attorney, is believed to be earning $5,000 a day for Tyson’s defense. Greg Garrison, a special prosecutor hired by the Marion County prosecutor’s office, is earning $70 an hour, with a $20,000 cap.

When the 18-year-old Rhode Island woman who filed the rape charges against Tyson is to testify, she and her mother will be brought to Indianapolis on an Indiana State Police airplane. . . . This trial brings to mind the case of onetime boxing superstar Tony Ayala. In 1983, Ayala, then 19, was convicted in a New Jersey rape case and sentenced to 15 to 35 years. He remains in New Jersey’s Rahway State Prison and isn’t eligible for parole until 1998. A junior-middleweight, Ayala was 22-0 with 19 knockouts and was thought to be one of boxing’s most promising young prospects when he was convicted.

A week ago, someone in the Marion County prosecutor’s office was asked to compute the cost to county taxpayers for trying Tyson. The costs at that point were put at $96,000, and that didn’t count the cost of sequestering the jury for as along as three weeks. At that point, the decision was made to charge admission to reporters. Each of the approximately 200 credentialed journalists had to pay a $55 “user fee” to help defray the cost of outfitting media viewing (closed-circuit TV) and work rooms. . . . The 16 jurors--including four alternates--will be paid $37.50 a day and will be sequestered at the Indianapolis Athletic Club, about six blocks from the courthouse. The jurors will be allowed to return home only to pack a suitcase and return to the Indianapolis Athletic Club, Judge Patricia J. Gifford said.