Prosecutors will tell a jury of four women and two men if the former drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd should be convicted.

Artimus Pyle, 61 and dressed in a cream-colored jacket over dark pants, was visibly upset as jury selection took practically all of the court\'s time yesterday, Monday August 24.

In 1993, Pyle was arrested and charged in Jacksonville Beach, Florida with sexual battery against both daughters. Facing two potential life sentences without parole, Pyle arranged a plea bargain with prosecutors to spare the children a trial. He \"reluctantly accepted\" eight years of probation.

Pyle successfully completed probation and moved to Asheville, N.C., in October 2002.

Defender Tom Cushman of St. Augustine, states that Pyle received a notice in 2007 from Duval County that he had to reinstate his Florida driver\'s license, which had been suspended \"for a failure to pay child support obligations\" That obligation no longer existed because the children had become adults.

Nonetheless, Pyle received a new license at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in St. Augustine on October 18, 2007. He did not correct the DMV when his former Crescent Beach address was put on the license.

Pyle reportedly told a St. Johns County detective that he planned to come back to Florida at some time to appeal his sex offender status. Tom Cushman:

\"Pyle did not indicate in any of his conversations (with the detective) that he had already established a residence in Florida, but rather that at some unspecified time in the future he was planning to do so.\"

The defenders will argue for a strict interpretation of the statute - that Pyle was not required to register at all until he actually moved back to the state.

Conviction
According to Artimus Pyle, after he left Lynyrd Skynyrd, his longtime girlfriend (with whom he had two daughters) had him arrested on charges of capital sexual battery, by claiming that he sexually abused their daughter while giving her a bath. He claims that his former girlfriend told their two daughters that when their father gave them a bath, that he was having sex with them. Pyle:

\"It was that simple. The state never had a case. Their whole case was \'we think he touched his children.\' I said, \'You\'re damn right I did. I changed their diapers...I\'ve got six kids, I mean, what would you do?\' And they go, \'O.K., so you admit it. You did touch your children.\'\"

Artimus Pyle received eight years of probation and was entered into the Florida Department of Law Enforcement\'s \"sexual offender\" database.