Jury selection is underway in New London Superior Court in the case of David J. Grant, who is accused of fatally shooting one woman and wounding another at the Mai Thai Restaurant and Bar in Norwich on June 24, 2012.

The trial is expected to begin on or about March 23 before 12 jurors and several alternates. Judge Barbara Bailey Jongloed is presiding.

Grant, 35, is accused of murdering 45-year-old Donna Richardson and shooting her niece, 29-year-old Crystal Roderick, in the thigh. The women were at the restaurant celebrating a birthday and were not Grant’s intended targets, according to police.

Grant has pleaded not guilty. In opting for a trial, he rejected prosecutor Stephen M. Carney’s offer to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 45 years. He is charged with murder, first-degree assault and criminal possession of a firearm and faces up to 85 years in prison, 32 years of which are mandatory, if convicted. He is represented by attorney Sebastian O. DeSantis.

According to Norwich Police, Grant, who is known as “D,” has a glass eye as a result of being shot in the face on Talman Street in November 2010. He was attempting to shoot a man who had shot at a friend of his a year earlier.

A one-time resident of Norwich, Grant was arrested in Baltimore in December 2012 and extradited to Connecticut. He has been held in lieu of $2.5 million while his case was pending.