The prosecution opened its case Wednesday at the Story County Courthouse in Nevada against Belefia Parks, an Iowa State student and nonscholarship basketball player.

Parks, a transfer point guard from DePaul University, did not play last year because transfer athletes lose a year of eligibility under NCAA rules. He was allowed to practice with the team and sit on the bench during games.

Parks was arrested on May 30 and charged with second degree theft, a class D felony. He and two other people are accused of walking out of the Ames Kmart without paying for $1,000 worth of electronic equipment including a TV, two VCRs, a VCR stand, a cordless telephone and a portable stereo system.

If found guilty, Parks faces a fine between $500 and $7,500 and a maximum prison term of no more than five years.

Parks remained expressionless as Story County Attorney Mary Richards and his attorney, William T. Talbot, questioned the 27 potential jurors.

A jury of six men and seven women was selected, but Talbot objected to the jury’s make up, saying “the entire panel is not representative of the community. There is not a single minority jury member.”

“Mr. Parks is obviously of African-American descent and nobody on this panel is a minority, let alone African American,” he said. “Everyone brings prejudices that have an impact.”

Richards said the court must take into account the population distribution of Story County.

With so few minority residents, she said it is unlikely that a minority member would be selected in a random sample.

District Court Judge William Pattinson overruled Talbot’s objection, saying it should have been submitted in writing sooner.

Neil Howard, loss control manager for the Ames Kmart, was the prosecution’s first witness. Howard testified that he was in the store on May 30 to observe employee George Bellevue, who Parks is accused of conspiring with.

Howard said a security camera caught Parks, Bellevue and Kate Hightshoe, an acquaintance of Parks’, leaving the store with electronic equipment they hadn’t paid for.

The prosecution’s second witness was Gene Schmitz, a Des Moines Kmart loss control manager, who was with Howard on the night in question. Schmitz presented a videotape of Parks loading a shopping cart with electronic equipment.

David Wilson, the prosecution’s third witness and Kmart’s central district loss control manager who was outside the store at the time, said he observed Parks, Bellevue and Hightshoe loading the equipment into Parks’ car.

Wilson, Schmitz and Howard said they approached and questioned the threesome and Parks claimed they were going to rip the tags off the items and go back into the store to pay for them.

Earlier testimony attempted to show that not all of the tags could be easily detached from the electronic items.

The trial will resume today at 9 a.m.