UTICA - Lawyers were to begin picking a jury Monday that will decide whether a 47-year-old Pennsylvania man should be held responsible for the shooting death of an upstate New York police officer following a jewelry store heist last year, even though someone else pulled the trigger.

John Healy, of Yardley, Pa., is charged with second-degree murder and 18 counts of robbery in the slaying of New Hartford Police Officer Joseph Corr in February 2006. Oneida County Judge Michael Dwyer has set aside three days for jury selection. Opening arguments are scheduled for Thursday. Corr, 30, a six-year veteran with a wife and young daughter, was gunned down behind a convenience store in Kirkland, N.Y., on Feb. 27, 2006 as he chased Healy and another suspect, Walter Richardson, who were running away after their getaway car crashed. The men had just stolen more than $1 million in jewelry and watches from a New Hartford store.

Corr died from a single gunshot to the neck.

Healy was taken into custody at the scene of the crash. Healy was charged with murder because he participated in the actions that led to Corr's death.

Richardson, the suspected triggerman, hijacked a tow truck and fled. He was killed the next day in a shootout with U.S. marshals near his home in Chester, Pa., 15 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

In a series of pretrial hearings, defense lawyer Rebecca Wittman has raised questions concerning the actual extent of Healy's participation in the robbery. Although Healy was riding in the getaway vehicle, he has not yet been identified by witnesses as one of the four men believed to have robbed the jewelry store.

Wittman also tried, unsuccessfully, to suppress cell phone records from trial that link Healy to several of the other Philadelphia-area suspects in the robbery and to Corr's death.

Wittman said she had not decided whether Healy will testify during the trial, but that he probably would not.

The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.

Two others implicated in the robbery - Robert Ward, 27, and Marion Pegese, 33, both of Philadelphia - are being held out-of-state on unrelated charges involving a jewelry store robbery in New Jersey. They have yet to be charged in the New Hartford robbery.