Bismarck, N.D. ? Jury selection in the trial of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. was halted before it began Thursday when U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson told the court that the sample from which the first 15 perspective jurors were to be called was not sufficiently random.

He said the “glitch” would be fixed and jury selection would begin this morning.

Thursday was to be the first day of jury selection in the trial of Rodriguez, 53, who is accused of kidnapping Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes, Minn., on Nov. 22, 2003, in a mall parking lot in Grand Forks, N.D. He allegedly took her across the Red River into Minnesota and killed her after hours of torture and terror. Sjodin’s body was found April 17, 2004, in a Minnesota ravine.