By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Jury selection for the trial of murder suspect Eric Windhurst is scheduled for Aug. 28, with the trial likely to begin on Sept. 5, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin.

Windhurst, of 34 Kimball Lake Road, Hopkinton, is accused of murdering Hooksett's Daniel Paquette in 1985, by shooting him in the heart with a rifle. Paquette was welding outside his Whitehall Road home at the time of the shooting.

Windhurst pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charge on Dec. 21.

Jonathan Cohen, representing Windhurst, said the defense may soon ask the court for bail.

"We still want to get all the evidence and information from the state before we do that," he said.

Windhurst has been held at the Merrimack County Jail since his Dec. 14 arrest.

The 20-year-old murder case seemed to gather new momentum when police contacted Paquette's stepdaughter, Melanie Paquette Cooper, in 2004.

According to an affidavit, Cooper told police she was with Windhurst when he allegedly murdered Paquette. Cooper also told police that she and Windhurst agreed on an alibi if they were questioned about their whereabouts on the day of the alleged murder, court records show.

Cooper has agreed to testify against Windhurst, plans to plead guilty, and faces threeand- a-half to seven years in prison for the charge of misleading investigators, Strelzin said.