Jury selection continues today for the trial of a Pine Township man accused of strangling his mother and threatening to blow up the trailer they shared.

Shane R. Sloan, 29, faces charges of first-degree murder and risking a catastrophe in the Feb. 5, 2001, death of 48-year-old Susan LaRue Fleeger.

When proceedings wrapped up for the day Thursday evening, eight jurors had been selected, according to a spokesperson for Mercer County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Wherry, who is to hear the case. Jury selection was to resume this morning, the spokesperson said.

Four more jurors are needed and several other alternate jurors are expected to be chosen, the spokesperson said.

State police said they found the body of Mrs. Fleeger inside their mobile home after a two-hour standoff with police. During the standoff, Sloan threatened to blow up the trailer with propane from a gas stove, police said.

Sloan was scheduled to report to Mercer County Jail that morning to begin serving a 12-day sentence on a shoplifting charge.