The trial of Christopher and Jason Rosengrant is set to begin this afternoon after a quick jury selection yesterday morning.

The Rosengrants have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the October 2003 death of former Penn State student Salvador Peter Serrano.

The county called 200 people to court for jury duty yesterday.

Attorneys interviewed 38 for the case, and ultimately selected four women and eight men.

Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar said jury selection was normal, despite the media's intensive coverage of the incident since last year.

"No problems at all," he said.

Jury selection for the Rosengrant trial was originally slated to begin at 1 p.m., but jury selection for other cases finished early, and the attorneys agreed to begin at 10:20 a.m.

After the 12-person jury and two alternates were selected, Centre County Judge Charles Brown, who will preside over the trial, told jurors to try to avoid media outlets so news accounts do not shape their views of the trial.

"I don't know what media coverage there will be," he said. "I'm instructing you to stop reading the paper, listening to the news."

Brown also told jurors to avoid the area around the All American Rathskeller, 108 S. Pugh St., where an altercation between Serrano and the Rosengrants took place, so they would not be influenced by the atmosphere.

"Don't go anywhere where you might learn something," he said. "Don't go there because things change in a short period of time. What was it like that day?"

Additionally, Brown added that jurors should avoid talking to family members, friends or each other about the trial until its conclusion.

Gricar said the instructions to jurors were "fairly normal" for a case that has garnered media attention; however most cases do not receive a high level of media coverage.

"Any one of our judges would give those instructions," he said.

Serrano died Oct. 26, 2003, after an altercation with the Rosengrants outside the Rathskeller, where they were employed at the time.

Serrano, his fiancée Brooke Morgan and two friends were walking down Calder Way behind the bar when one friend, Timothy Padalino, stopped in the Rathskeller's parking lot to urinate.

According to court documents, Rathskeller employees saw Padalino urinating and asked the group to leave, and an argument began.

Court documents state that Serrano was pushed to the ground by Christopher Rosengrant and was restrained by Jason Rosengrant.

At some point during the altercation, Serrano began to vomit and choked, becoming unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead at Mount Nittany Medical Center.