POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Jury selection started this week in the murder trial of a Polk County man accused of killing a former Lakeland commissioner and her husband in 2020.

Marcelle Jerrill Waldon, 39, is accused of killing former commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and her husband David Henderson in their home on Lake Morton Drive on Nov. 11, 2020.

She was 67. Her husband was 63.

Waldon, 39, faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and arson. The State Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty. 

According to records, Waldon had been released from prison in 2019 after serving time on burglary charges. 

In the courtroom in Bartow this week, lawyers will comb through dozens of prospective jurors in an effort to seat a jury.

According to authorities, both of the victims were stabbed with their bodies being found in an upstairs bedroom.

Investigators said immediately after the murders that they believed David Henderson went out that morning to pick up breakfast. When he returned home, with the food still in bags, he went upstairs to find his wife already dead.

Investigators said Waldon, after killing David Henderson, turned on all the burners of the gas stove in the kitchen in an effort to set the home on fire.

Authorities said he took one of the couple's cars, which was later found burned in Lakeland.

Yates-Henderson served as a Lakeland city commissioner from 2006 until the beginning of 2018.

The trial is expected to take several weeks.  

Marcelle Jerrill Waldon, 39, is accused of killing former commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and her husband David Henderson in their home on Lake Morton Drive on Nov. 11, 2020. (Polk Co. Jail)