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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994                   TAG: 9404140322
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

LAWYER APPOINTED TO REPRESENT SHANKS

Shanks, 30, recently confessed to authorities that he robbed the A&J Quick Shop in Blacksburg last June and beat a Pulaski County man with a claw hammer and robbed him in November.

He was indicted on those charges earlier this month. Shanks, who was paroled last April after serving about 13 years for a 1980 murder conviction, told Judge Ray Grubbs on Wednesday that he wanted to waive his right to a lawyer and refused to sign a financial disclosure statement used to determine whether people qualify for a court-appointed attorney.

Shanks said last week he intended to represent himself and planned to plead guilty. But Grubbs appointed John Huntington to assist Shanks in preparing for trial, prompting Shanks to ask whether he had the right to fire him.

"No, sir, because you haven't hired him," Grubbs responded.

Shanks will likely try to decline a lawyer again when he appears in Pulaski County later this month for attorney advisement on the charges of beating and robbing Bobby McDaniel, 43, who was attacked at his Hazel Hollow Road home last November. McDaniel sustained head injuries and remains hospitalized.