Stephen Morgan's attorneys say he was mentally ill at the time of the shooting. He will be tried before a panel of three judges.
The victim, 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich, was working at the Red & Black Cafe inside Broad Street Books on May 6, 2009 when Morgan allegedly walked in and shot her.
On Tuesday, the presiding judge, Susan B. Handy, said she would allow a television news camera and a newspaper photographer to film and take pictures during the trial, against the wishes of Morgan's defense attorneys and the state prosecutor.
The trial was delayed partly because a mental health expert hired by the state to evaluate Morgan in August 2010 became ill and was unable to complete the evaluations. The mental health report was completed in September.
Morgan's lawyers have said that two physicians will testify during the trial about Morgan's mental disease or defect at the time of the slaying.
Morgan had allegedly threatened Justin-Jinich in 2007 when they attended a New York University summer program.
Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint on July 10, 2007, claiming that he was calling her repeatedly and sent her insulting e-mails for at least a week, according to a police report.
Morgan had apparently already left New York for Boston at the time the complaint was filed, and he was not arrested.
The shooting, at the Red & Black Cafe inside Broad Street Books, prompted a nearly two-day campus lockdown after police found a journal with anti-Semitic comments that they believed belonged Morgan, according to court records.
The journal contains writings about a killing spree targeting Jewish people and "beautiful and smart" Wesleyan students, according to court records. Justin-Jinich came from a Jewish family.
Morgan fled the scene on foot. He eventually turned himself in the night after the shooting.
The killing stunned and frightened the Wesleyan community over two days and caused a campus lockdown. After the shooting but before Morgan's arrest the next day, police found journals in Morgan's car and announced that he had written about killing Justin-Jinich, going on a shooting spree on campus and targeting Jews. Justin-Jinich's family is Jewish, and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.
The two apparently met in 2007 while attending a summer class at New York University. Justin-Jinich filed a harassment complaint with police that summer claiming she was getting unwanted phone calls and insulting emails from Morgan, but she didn't pursue criminal charges.
Morgan chose the three-judge panel over a jury for his trial, and his lawyer is pursuing an insanity defense. If convicted of murder, he could face up to 60 years in prison or be committed to a high-security state psychiatric hospital, depending on the judges' ruling on the insanity claim. He was also charged with two other felonies - intimidation due to bias and carrying a pistol without a permit.
Prosecutors have indicated that their first witnesses will include students, employees of the café where Justin-Jinich was working when she was killed and police officers. Both the prosecution and defense are expected to put psychiatrists on the witness stand to testify about Morgan's mental health.
On Tuesday, Judge Susan Handy, who will lead the panel, decided to allow one television camera and one newspaper camera in the courtroom. Both the prosecution and defense opposed the media's camera requests.
The case is being tried by prosecutor Timothy Liston and defense lawyer Richard Brown. Judges Julia Aurigemma and James Bentivegna will join Handy on the bench, Brown said.
"I think both sides are ready and the court's anxious to get this case ... in the rearview mirror," Brown said Tuesday.
Liston didn't return a message Tuesday. Justin-Jinich's mother, Ingrid Justin, declined to comment through a spokeswoman.
Justin-Jinich was working at The Red and Black Café inside Broad Street Books when Morgan allegedly walked in wearing a wig and shot her several times. An arrest warrant affidavit says a police officer questioned Morgan outside the bookstore shortly after the shooting but let him go. Morgan surrendered the next night about 10 miles away in Meriden.
In a journal entry before the killing, Morgan wrote, "I think it okay to kill Jews and go on a killing spree at this school," police said.
Police also said they found an infamous anti-Semitic book, "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," in Morgan's hotel room.
The announcement of Morgan's writings prompted Wesleyan officials to lock buildings on campus, tell students to stay indoors and tell staff members to stay home. A synagogue across the street from the bookstore closed its doors temporarily, and congregants considered canceling Sabbath services.
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