Capital murder trial for Meechaiel Criner

The capital murder trial for Meechaiel Criner, the man accused of the 2016 death of University of Texas freshman Haruka Weiser is set to begin.

State District Judge David Wahlberg has put a stiff timeline on the trial as a whole. Judge Wahlberg announced last week that a verdict must be reached by July 20th as another trial is set to begin in his courtroom three days later.

Jury selection begins today and could go on as long as Wednesday. Once that's complete opening statements and the presentation of evidence will take place.

Weiser was studying dance when she went missing in 2016. A few days later her remains were found along Waller Creek near UT's campus and Criner was soon located with items that were believed to belong to Weiser.

Police also believe Criner was the man seen on surveillance video around the time Weiser went missing.

The defense team says police arrested the wrong person. Just last month, Criner's attorneys filed a motion to suppress DNA evidence collected from Weiser. 

DPS was testing a new type of technology in DNA collection at the time. Prosecutors say the forensic software gives a different type of statistic than what courts are used to but the defense raised multiple issues regarding how it was flawed.

Judge Wahlberg tossed out those DNA results from the trial.

Criner has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge. If jurors find him guilty he faces an automatic life sentence.