WENATCHEE — Seventy-three prospective jurors filled out questionnaires Monday on their prior knowledge of the case against Christopher Scott Wilson and the murder of Mackenzie Cowell.

Emma Scanlan, one of the attorneys defending Wilson against the first-degree murder charge, told Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges the questionnaire she composed “is targeted at media exposure,” seeking to learn how much the juror candidates have absorbed about the case from news sources.

Prior knowledge of the case has been cited as potential grounds for changing the trial’s venue — moving Wilson’s trial to a different county in hopes of drawing an untainted jury pool.

Bridges said he hopes to seat a 12-person jury with three alternate jurors by Wednesday, when prosecution witnesses are scheduled to begin testifying at 1 p.m.

Chelan County Prosecutor Gary Riesen and main defense lawyer John Henry Browne will be able to reject up to nine potential jurors on “peremptory challenge,” without citing a reason for their dismissal. Other jurors will have to be dismissed “for cause,” with Bridges ruling on each juror’s eligibility.

Wilson, 31, sat unshackled in the courtroom for the first time since his October 2010 arrest. He wore a cream sweater, white dress shirt and brown slacks.

He’s accused of murdering his 17-year-old fellow hairstyling student on Feb. 9, 2010, after Cowell drove away from the Academy of Hair Design on her afternoon break. She was found Feb. 13 on the shoreline at Crescent Bar, dead from strangulation, a stab wound to the throat and a blow to the head.

Jefferson Robbins: 664-7123

robbins@wenatcheeworld.com