Jury selection begins Monday in a death penalty case against a man accused of setting fire to a house in Homewood in 2017 and killing three people, including a 4-year-old child.

Martell Smith, 45, is charged with 13 counts, including three counts of criminal homicide, stemming from the fire Dec. 20, 2017, on Bennett Street.

Testimony in the case is expected to begin Sept. 12 before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos. A total of 16 jurors will be selected. Only 12 will deliberate.

According to investigators, Smith was involved in a bar fight early that morning at a Penn Hills club called Spot.

Smith and another man, Rico Carter, got into a fight, which was broken up. However, as Carter left the bar, police said, Smith instigated a second fight, but then allegedly lost.

Police said Smith could then be seen in surveillance photos driving to a Point Breeze gas station, buying a gas can, filling it and then driving away about 2:10 a.m.

A short time later, they said, Smith went to Carter’s house, in the 7600 block of Bennett Street, doused the three-story brick house with the gasoline, lit it and drove away.

The fire was reported at 2:21 a.m. Carter was not home at the time, but instead had returned to the house and was sitting in a car outside talking to his friend when they smelled smoke.

Carter then got a call that the house was on fire.

Killed were his girlfriend, Shamira Staten, 21; her 4-year-old daughter, Ch’yenne Manning; and his mother, Sandra Carter Douglas, 58.

Police said Smith admitted setting the fire while at the scene watching the home burn.

One witness said Smith said, “‘I heard Sandra was in there … she’s dead … oh, well, that’s life … they made me do it,’” according to the criminal complaint.

• From 2017: Police: Arson suspect bragged as he watched deadly Homewood fire

A witness took Smith’s photograph at the scene and gave it to police. When they found him a short time later, in a white Pontiac Grand Prix parked on Brushton Avenue, police said, he smelled of gasoline.

Police said when Smith was interviewed, he changed his story repeatedly.

A woman who was with him in the car, Tiasa Malloy, pleaded guilty in 2018 to lesser charges, including criminal attempted vandalism and resisting arrest. She was ordered to serve three to six months in jail and a year of probation.

Three months after the fire, prosecutors filed notice that they would seek the death penalty, outlining six aggravating factors they say warrant capital punishment.

They include that the defendant committed the killing while in the perpetration of a felony; that the victim was a child less than 12 years old; that Smith knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victims; that he has a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence; and that he has been convicted of another murder before or at the time of the offense in question.

If the jurors find Smith guilty of first-degree murder, they will move to a penalty phase where they will weigh the aggravating circumstances against any mitigating evidence presented by the defense.

To return a death verdict, the jury must find unanimously the existence of at least one aggravating factor and conclude that it outweighs the mitigation.

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