Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133270
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: By  Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CAMPBELL COUNTY MEN DENY MURDERING DEFENDANT'S WIFE/ PAIR PLEAD INNOCENT;

Hicks is accused of hiring Reuben Gregory Barksdale, who told Campbell County Sheriff's Department investigators that he killed Lena Hicks on her 45th birthday Jan. 8.

Campbell County Circuit Judge J. Samuel Johnston Jr. on Monday granted a motion filed by Barksdale's attorney to have Barksdale examined by a mental health expert before his jury trial in September.

Barksdale said Hicks paid him $900 and asked him to make Lena Hicks' death look like an accident.

Her body was found Jan. 9 in her car at the bottom of a ravine. An autopsy found she had been beaten to death with a hammer.

James Hicks' attorney, Bryan Selz, filed a motion to have his client's July 16 trial moved to another site, saying the case has received so much attention in Campbell County that it would be impossible to find an impartial jury there.

Johnston said he would rule on the motion to move Hicks' trial at a hearing March 21.

Both Hicks and Barksdale are being held without bond in the Campbell County Jail.