MT. VERNON, IL — Jury selection began Tuesday in a Jefferson County case charging a 30-year-old Mt. Vernon man with sexual assault. In an unusual step due to the coronavirus pandemic, jurors are being selected in a setting at the Rolland-Lewis building rather than in the courthouse.

Theodore Jefferson is charged with Class 1 felony sexual assault by force and Class 4 felony unlawful restraint. He will first be tried on those charges and will later be tried in an unrelated case accusing him of a June stabbing in the 1000 block of South 26th in Mt. Vernon.

The sexual assault case was filed against Jefferson in April 2019, and he was released from the Jefferson County Jail after posting $6,000 cash bond.

He was free on bond in the sexual assault case when he was arrested in connection with the stabbing case and subsequently charged with Class X felony armed violence, Class 2 felonies for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and aggravated domestic battery, along with Class 3 aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Jefferson remains in the county jail.