Late Paperwork Stalls Start of Broderick Trial : Courts: An unfinished questionnaire for potential jurors stopped proceedings five minutes after they started in the trial of a woman charged with killing her ex-husband and his new wife.

Elisabeth Anne (Betty) Broderick’s double murder trial officially began Thursday--and concluded for the day all of five minutes later because a jury questionnaire was not yet ready.

Jury selection in the case was due to start Thursday with distribution of the questionnaire to hundreds of potential jurors. But since the form was not finished, San Diego Superior Court Judge Thomas Whelan called a halt to the proceedings and ordered them to resume today.

Whelan said that his preliminary review of the questionnaire indicated that it contained some sensitive questions. He did not, however, disclose the nature of any of the questions.

He also warned Deputy Dist. Atty. Kerry Wells and defense lawyer Jack Earley that they would not be allowed follow-up questions in open court on the sensitive material.

Broderick, 42, faces two counts of murder in the shooting deaths last Nov. 5 of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, and his new wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick. They were shot as they slept in their Marston Hills home.

Daniel Broderick was a prominent medical malpractice attorney and a former county bar president.

During and after a bitter divorce, Betty accused Daniel of using his legal influence to cheat her out of her fair share of his seven-figure income.

Betty Broderick confessed to the killings in a March interview with The Times. She said they were a “desperate act of self-defense” against a man who wanted to control her.

Betty Broderick has pleaded not guilty. She has been held without bail at the Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee since November.

At Thursday’s hearing, she wore an electric-blue suit that almost hid the chains around her waist and wrist, a change from the appliqued pantsuit she wore at previous court appearances. She also appeared to have lost considerable weight.

Jury selection, which will begin officially today when the questionnaires are distributed to hundreds of potential jurors, is expected to last two or three weeks, Whelan said.

In all, the trial is slated to run six or seven weeks, Whelan said. “In no event” should it last until Thanksgiving, he said.