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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991                   TAG: 9102150723
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WINCHESTER                                LENGTH: Short

JUDGE ASKED TO STEP ASIDE IN MURDER TRIAL

Attorneys for the second man charged in the slaying of Leann Whitlock want Augusta County Circuit Judge Thomas H. Wood removed from the case.

In motions filed in Winchester Circuit Court, Ronald Lee Henderson's attorneys said Wood already has stated that he thought co-defendant Thomas David Strickler had an accomplice.

Wood presided at all phases of Strickler's trial and upheld the jury's recommendation sentencing Strickler to death.

The attorneys also are seeking to prohibit questions to potential jurors about their feelings on the death penalty.

Henderson, 25, of Marlinton, W.Va., is charged in the Jan. 5, 1990, abduction and slaying of Whitlock, 19 - a James Madison University student from Roanoke - and theft of her car.

Strickler, 25, of New Market, was found guilty of identical charges.

Henderson's case was moved after his attorneys argued it was impossible to get a fair trial in Augusta County because of pretrial publicity.

Henderson's trial is scheduled for the week of March 25.

by CNB