Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190382
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLONIAL HEIGHTS LENGTH: Long
As she stepped into the garage to get in her Mercedes, Reuben Gregory Barksdale bludgeoned her to death with a 4-pound sledgehammer.
James Hicks washed the dinner dishes and got the couple's three young sons started on their homework - oblivious to the beating his wife was receiving so close by, his attorneys say.
Hicks, who is charged with hiring Barksdale to commit the killing, had nothing to do with it, defense attorney A. David Hawkins told jurors Wednesday in opening arguments at Hicks' trial.
Hicks, a 44-year-old former Campbell County school administrator, could face the electric chair if convicted.
Hawkins suggested that Barksdale, a 29-year-old carpenter, was waiting in the Hicks' garage - poised to steal from the couple's Campbell County mansion, not plotting murder as the prosecution has claimed.
When Lena Hicks walked out, Barksdale panicked. Afraid she might later recognize him, Barksdale - with orders from no one - killed her, Hawkins said.
James Hicks' supposed role in the killing came much later: when Barksdale, under pressure from police, wanted to pass the blame off on someone else and get a lesser punishment, Hawkins alleged.
During several interrogations the week after the death, Campbell County investigators encouraged Barksdale to implicate Hicks in a murder-for-hire scheme, Hawkins said.
He said transcripts of the interviews will show they went so far as to try to put the "seed" in Barksdale's mind about how such a scheme might have come about.
"A number of seeds have been planted," Hawkins said, describing one of the final interviews with Barksdale. "Germination occurs overnight and the crop has sprouted."
A day after that interview and a week after Lena Hicks' death, Barksdale confessed to the crime - and said Hicks had planned it, paid for it and covered up for it.
That, according to Campbell prosecutor Neil S. Vener, is exactly what happened.
In his 15-minute opening argument, Vener portrayed Hicks as an emotionless, uncaring coward who put his favorite possession - his house - above his wife.
Vener described a man who showed no unhappiness and shed no tears when the Campbell County sheriff told him his wife had been found dead in a ravine off Lawyers Road near Lynchburg.
Her body was discovered in the front seat of her car Jan. 9 in what Vener says was a scenario staged to look like a traffic accident. Hicks' dry reaction stemmed from the fact that he already knew very well of his wife's death by the time the sheriff came by, Vener suggested.
"The only thing that mattered to him was that house," Vener said. The couple had spent years renovating their century-old plantation-style home, called Oakwood.
Hicks ran around portraying himself within the Evington community as a family man, but, in truth, he cared little for his family, Vener claimed.
Several days after his wife died, Hicks asked friends about the possibility of boarding school "to get rid" of the children as well, he said.
Vener said that when Barksdale once asked Hicks why he wanted his wife killed, Hicks said he had wanted her dead for several years. Barksdale said Hicks then recalled, with great irritation, how Lena Hicks sometimes forced him to take care of their children, Vener said.
Money, too, motivated Hicks, Vener said.
"His life and lifestyle was far beyond his salary as a truant officer," Vener said. Hicks had a $100,000 life insurance policy on his wife.
But defense attorneys said Hicks had no financial trouble and no motive for wanting his wife killed.
"No one does that without a reason," Hawkins said.
The 14 jurors, who include homemakers, an engineer and a secretary, heard an entirely different description of Hicks from the defense. The nine women and five men from Colonial Heights are hearing the case, which could last up to three weeks, because of pretrial publicity in Campbell County.
Hawkins described Hicks as a hard-working, polite and private man who depended solely on his family for friendship and who loved his wife. Friendly, but not the life of the party, Hicks tended to fall asleep around 9, he said.
Hicks' apparent calmness when he was told of his wife's death actually revealed his basic character, Hawkins said. "His demeanor was calm. This is the way Jim Hicks is and always will be," Hawkins said.
Even as a small child, Hicks went to his room and shut the door before being able to cry, Hawkins said Hicks' mother had recalled.
Hicks, who looked pale and gaunt in a gray suit and tie, slumped to the side of his chair, holding his chin in his hand during Wednesday's proceedings.
During court recesses, Hicks smiled and chatted about the chilly temperature in the room with the sheriff's deputies assigned to guard him.
Approached by his brother's minister, Hicks repeatedly expressed his gratitude for the man's presence in court and smiled graciously.
It was Barksdale's character, Hawkins said, that the jurors ought to study. Barksdale, whom Hicks met when he rented an apartment to him, is no stranger to drugs, to lies, or to the court system, Hawkins said. He is a "flim-flam man," Hawkins said.
It was no coincidence, he said, that Barksdale pleaded guilty last week to capital murder in the case.
"A backroom deal has been cut," Hawkins said. Barksdale's attorney and Vener made an agreement that Barksdale would plead guilty and testify against Hicks in exchange for a promise that Vener would recommend that Barksdale not be executed, Hawkins alleged.
But Vener told jurors that Barksdale would get no special deal for his testimony and that his fate rested solely with a judge.
"It was a plain and ordinary plea, straight-up," Vener said. "No plea bargain."
But Hawkins pointed out to jurors that Barksdale won't be sentenced until after Hicks' trial ends.
No accident there, he said. "It's so he can fulfill his part of a deal first."
Barksdale is expected to testify for the prosecution Friday.
by CNB