WORCESTER — One prospective juror, sitting feet away from the black defendant, said he was “prejudiced against all minorities.” One woman burst into tears when she learned one of the victims was a toddler. A 45-year-old truck driver said he had followed the case closely in the news and knew that a key prosecution witness had changed his story. It would be too hard to believe that witness, he said.

In an effort to find an impartial jury in the retrial of Dwayne Moore, accused of killing four people in Mattapan in 2010, a Suffolk judge ruled earlier this month that the panel would be selected in Worcester. The glare of news coverage had been too intense to trust that an untainted jury pool could be found in Boston.