Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 24, 1992 TAG: 9203240299
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Circuit Court Judge Clifford Weckstein on Monday granted West's motion for a change of venue, meaning that a trial scheduled to begin next Monday will be postponed for at least several months.
Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said the trial may be held in Loudoun County, but that final details on a new venue have not been arranged.
West - a former Salem businessman accused of killing his estranged wife, Barbara, during a bitter custody fight over their three sons - was convicted in 1989 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, the Virginia Court of Appeals overturned the conviction last year, ruling that the jury heard improper hearsay testimony from witnesses who told of West's death threats against his wife, and ordered a new trial.
The case attracted so much publicity, West said, that he can no longer receive a fair trial in an area served by Roanoke media. The case has already been moved once - from Salem to Roanoke for the first trial - because of similar concerns.
Weckstein's decision was the first time in recent years that a trial has been moved out of Roanoke because of pretrial publicity. The last time apparently was for Gene Dixon, the owner of a Southeast Roanoke bicycle shop who was convicted in 1984 of molesting young girls at his business.
West, who is being held without bond, was given the option of going to trial next week in Roanoke, or waiting for months until an out-of-town courtroom becomes available.
He said Monday that he doesn't mind the wait. "My main concern is getting a fair trial," West said from the Roanoke County/Salem Jail.
Caldwell said it may be as late as November before a trial is scheduled. That, ironically, is the month that West would first become eligible for parole on his 20-year sentence.
Witnesses testified at West's first trial that he and his wife were separated and involved in a custody fight in the months before her body was found in their Union Street home in March 1988. Barbara West had been stabbed with a butcher knife, beaten with a fireplace poker and strangled with a jump rope.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 26, 1992\ Clarification:
Although Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Clifford Weckstein and lawyers agreed this week that the murder trial for Dennis West will be moved out of town, Weckstein has yet to formally grant a motion for a change of venue, as was reported in a story Tuesday.
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Keywords:
ROMUR
Memo: correction