Preliminary jury selection in the murder trial of Christopher Lee started this week, but due to a conflict with the judge’s schedule, the juror panels will be called back to court October 3. Lee, 27, is accused of strangling his neighbor and former lover, Erin Corwin, 19, of Twentynine Palms, and dumping her body down a mine shaft east of Twentynine Palms in June 2014. Her body was found seven weeks later after an intensive search of 100 mines in a 300-square mile area in the Rose of Peru mining area. Lee was a Marine stationed at and living on the Marine Corps base in Twentynine Palms, and Lee and Corwin were next door neighbors at the time of Corwin’s murder. Lee has been held in county jail without bail since his arrest in August 2014.
