Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990 TAG: 9007310487
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLONIAL HEIGHTS LENGTH: Medium
The former Campbell County school administrator spent that morning in the office. At lunchtime, he bought his wife a birthday present - a new microwave oven.
He did stop in at Reuben Gregory Barksdale's apartment later that afternoon to ask the 29-year-old carpenter if he would help build a fence, Hicks testified today.
Barksdale has already said that Hicks asked him for a different favor that afternoon: to bludgeon Lena Hicks to death.
But in his second day on the witness stand, Hicks continued to maintain that he had no role in his wife's death.
Hicks, 44, is charged with capital murder for allegedly paying Barksdale $900 to murder his wife with a sledge hammer.
Hicks, who often paused and smiled during his testimony, portrayed his family life as a close, caring one today. "We did everything as a family," he said. "Our social life was centered around the house, the children and church-related things."
His relationship with his wife had not changed in the months before her death. Things "were going great," he told the jury.
He recalled how he had even had the couple's Campbell County road named for his wife late last year. Hicks said he petitioned the County's planning commission to call the road Lena Lane because "I thought it had a ring to it. I thought it would honor Lena."
Barksdale has already pleaded guilty to beating her to death with a 4-pound sledgehammer in the garage of her home as she was preparing to go to a church meeting.
He then took her to an isolated area in Campbell County, where he pushed her Mercedes down an embankment to make her death, on her 45th birthday, look like an accident.
Barksdale, who has not been sentenced but faces either the death penalty or life in prison, said the murder was planned by Hicks.
Hicks' trial was moved to Colonial Heights because of extensive publicity in the Campbell County area.
In testimony Monday, Hicks tried to defuse the prosecution's allegations that he was unaffectionate toward his wife and children and had his house burned so he could build one more to his liking.
Hicks said he and his wife worked closely in renovating the two-story plantation house they moved into shortly after marrying in 1976.
He said they also got along well with the domestic duties.
"We didn't divide up things by sex roles," Hicks said. "We did what had to be done and we got along well."
Hicks said that after the house burned in early 1988, his relationship with his wife still was very intimate, although she was depressed by the loss.
"Our relationship was as close as it had been, if not closer," he said. "It grew and matured. We became even closer. We were best friends as well as lovers. We just grew to be a part of each other."
Barksdale had testified that he started the March 2, 1988, fire that destroyed the house at the behest of Hicks so that Hicks could build a house with a Williamsburg design.
Hicks on Monday emphatically denied the allegation and noted that when the house burned, he lost many antiques that he and his wife had either bought or been given by their families.
He also denied having a poor relationship with his children.
"I know I've been presented as not caring about my children. That's just utter nonsense."
Hicks said he would drive them to school so he could spend time with them. Hicks added that he would also try to have lunch with his sons at school when it was possible.
by CNB