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Jury Selection Underway In 'Clark Rockefeller' Murder Trial

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A German national accused of murdering his landlord nearly 30 years ago was scheduled to be in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday.

KNX 1070's Pete Demetriou reports jury selection is expected to begin in the trial of a man who passed himself off as "Clark Rockefeller".

Jury selection begins in Clark Rockefeller trial

Christian K. Gerhartsreiter pleaded not guilty in July 2011 to murder charges in connection in a February 1985 slaying in San Marino, Calif.

Gerhartsreiter, 50, is accused of killing John Sohus and cutting his body up with a chainsaw before burying the victim in the back of a San Marino home.

Sohus - whose body was discovered nearly a decade later in 1994 - was living in a guest house on the property owned by Sohus' mother when he disappeared.

At the time the body was found, Gerhartsreiter was living on the East Coast in New Hampshire and Boston under aliases including Christopher Crowe and Clark Rockefeller before being arrested and sent to prison for attempted parental kidnapping in 2008.

Authorities ultimately caught up with Gerhartsreiter and brought him back to California, where he has been in Men's Central Jail for the last 20 months.

The trial is expected to last as long as six weeks.

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