ST. CROIX - Amid tight security, the trial of a V.I. police officer and his brother-in-law, who are accused of opening fire on a group of people gathered at John F. Kennedy housing community early Christmas morning 2007, killing two men and wounding four others, got under way Tuesday.

Jeffrey Browne, 29, and Luis Melendez, 25, are facing charges of murder, attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and obstructing a police officer, along with a weapons charge alleging they committed the crimes with a machine gun, a handgun and a shotgun.

Browne's wife, Marcella Browne, 24, also is on trial. She is charged with obstructing a police officer and being an accessory after the fact, accused of lying to investigators.

The nature of the crime itself - and the arrest of a police officer who is also the son of a high-ranking government official - has drawn much public attention and in the past has led to emotional outbursts in the courtroom during hearings.

Outside the presence of the jury and before testimony began Tuesday, Presiding Superior Court Judge Darryl Donohue told family members of the victims and the accused, who packed into the courtroom, that he would not tolerate any showing of emotion and that he had authorized Superior Court marshals to remove anyone who did so from the courtroom.

"I ask that you please maintain control of yourselves," he said. There were no outbursts.

After two days, working from a pool of more than 200 potential jurors, attorneys finished selecting a jury of seven men and five women, along with six alternates, about 8:30 p.m. Monday.

Jurors will be sequestered throughout the trial, a move Donohue said he chose so no one would be able to claim that any outside influence affected the outcome of the trial.

Browne and Melendez are accused of killing 18-year-old Allen Burke of Tide Village and 33-year-old Kennyetta McIntosh of Christiansted and wounding a JFK housing community resident, a St. Thomas man and two teens.

Tuesday morning - the same day Burke would have turned 20 had he survived the shooting - prosecutors and defense attorneys squared off in opening statements, asking jurors to listen closely and carefully weigh the evidence but suggesting that by doing so, they would come to drastically different conclusions.

Prosecutors contend that Jeffrey Browne and Melendez hung out together at Divi Carina Bay Casino the evening of Dec. 24 and left the casino in Browne's gray/silver Hyundai about 12:40 a.m. Dec. 25 - approximately 20 to 30 minutes before witnesses saw a gray/silver vehicle pull into the JFK housing community, drive through and leave before returning again minutes later.

A group of people had gathered under a streetlight near Building 5 at JFK, some of them gambling, others just hanging around enjoying the beginning of the holiday, Special Assistant Attorney General Alphonso Andrews told jurors in his opening statement.

When the vehicle returned, slowly approaching the spot where people were gambling, "out comes a gun from the right passenger window and shots were discharged," Andrews said. People scrambled for cover, some dropping to the ground. Witnesses reported seeing the vehicle go into the turnaround at the housing community and come back, firing more shots at people - "even at people on the ground," he said.

Andrews told jurors that they would hear witnesses say that Jeffrey Browne and Melendez were in that vehicle. He said that police found a red shotgun shell casing - similar to some found at the scene - in Browne's vehicle.

The prosecutor told jurors that the defendants came into the trial "cloaked in the presumption of innocence," and that evidence will be presented for the jury to consider. He said that once jurors conclude that all evidence has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the cloak of innocence disappears "and the defendants are then guilty, guilty, guilty."

But defense attorneys countered, pointing to what they described as inconsistent and sometimes contradictory evidence, asking jurors to think critically when they deliberate.

Defense attorney Andrew Capdeville, representing Jeffrey Browne, asked jurors in his opening statement to keep their emotions in check and to think critically about the evidence presented, saying that some of it will be contradictory, some will be inconsistent, and some of it will be "almost unbelievable."

He said different witnesses would describe the vehicle from which the shots were fired as different makes - from a Kia to a Lexus - with different versions of tinting, and different stories about how many people were in the car.

Marcella Browne took police to where the Brownes' Hyundai was parked in Harbourview housing community on Christmas Day, at the request of investigators, several hours after the shootings. She told police she left it there because the car was having transmission problems and would not reverse, after going on a drive to Harbourview around "12ish" that morning, her attorney, Vincent Colianni Jr. said.

Capdeville told jurors that none of the police who were at the vehicle - which was locked - on Christmas Day saw a red shotgun shell casing in the car and that it was only during a later search of the car that they found the shell. That search occurred after a detective took the car keys home with him for the night rather than entering them into evidence, Capdeville said.

Attorney Bruce Bennett, representing Melendez, also said there would be inconsistencies in evidence and told jurors that the information the government will present raises serious questions. He said police found no physical evidence that places his client in the Brownes' car at all.

Colianni told jurors that Marcella Browne is "a hard-working woman and a good mother."

He suggested the government would "go to any length" to get convictions in this case, noting that Marcella Browne gave police a statement on Dec. 25 indicating that she left the house around "12ish" that day for a drive. He contended that when police later brought her back in, they told her that unless she changed her statement and cooperated, they would take her two young children away.

"There is nothing more terrifying you can say to a mother," Colianni said, adding that at that point, Marcella Browne changed part of her statement.

Testimony commenced Tuesday afternoon, with the prosecution calling the surveillance manager at Divi to the stand and introducing video recordings from the casino, showing men that police identified as Jeffrey Browne and Melendez in the casino the night of Dec. 24, 2007, and leaving at 12:39 a.m. Dec. 25.

Detective Richard Matthews testified that it took approximately 20 minutes to drive from the casino to Estate Richmond, where the Brownes reside.

Matthews also read from the statement that Jeffrey Browne gave police on Dec. 25, including statements that on Dec. 24, Browne had been to Melendez's house and had placed his service weapon in the closet there and mistakenly left it. Browne also told police his wife had been upset with him and took a drive when he got home because he had been at the casino with Melendez and she had not wanted him to go, according to Matthews' testimony. In the written statement, Browne denied going to JFK on Dec. 24 or 25.

Matthews testified that after getting the key to the Browne's Hyundai, which police had impounded Christmas Day, from Jeffrey Browne on the 26th, he kept the keys in his pocket and turned them in the next day.

Testimony is scheduled to continue today.