JEFFERSON COUNTY — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in Jefferson County court in the 2017 first-degree murder case against a 19-year-old Mt. Vernon man.

Roderick S. Oats Jr., is facing three counts first degree murder for the July 2017 shooting death of Carlos Johnson.

Mt. Vernon police responded in the early morning hours of July 9, 2017, to the 700 block of South 25th Street on a report of shots fired.

Officials were later contacted by an area hospital of a man brought into the emergency room with gunshot wounds.

Oats was arrested later that same night in Benton, Ill. He was later charged with three counts first-degree murder for Johnson’s death and his bail was set at $3 million.

At the time of his arrest Oats was free on $2,500 cash bond after being arrested in Marion County for alleged possession of a stolen firearm and carrying or possessing a firearm without a FOID card.

He had been a passenger in a car stopped when leaving a party in Salem where two people had been shot.

While he wasn’t a suspect in that shooting incident, he was allegedly found in possession of a 38 caliber handgun that was reportedly loaded with four bullets and had the hammer cocked.

The gun was reported stolen in 1982 from Hanover, Massachusetts.