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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993                   TAG: 9302230275
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Southwest bureau
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

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MURDER TRIAL MOVE REJECTED BY JUDGE

A circuit judge has denied a motion by attorneys for T.J. Midkiff to move his murder trial out of Carroll County.

"There has been a great deal of publicity with regard to this case, but sheer volume of publicity is not alone sufficient to justify a change of venue," Judge Duane Mink said in his written ruling.

Midkiff is charged with the stabbing deaths of Sheila Marie Ring and her 2-year-old daughter, Jasmine Sutphin, and with the arson of their home in Woodlawn in December 1991. Their bodies were found in the ashes, but an autopsy showed they had not died in the fire.

If a panel of 20 potential jurors cannot be found in Carroll County, Mink said, he would reconsider the motion to move the trial.

The defense had provided clippings from newspaper articles, videotapes of television news broadcasts and sworn statements from people who felt Midkiff could not get a fair trial in the county.

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