ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The trial for a 16-year-old boy charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of a Wythe County deputy will not start before June 17, and probably not even then.
Attorneys for Christopher Shawn Wheeler, who was 15 when Deputy Cliff Dicker was shot and killed Dec. 6, 1994, on Monday asked Circuit Judge Colin Campbell to postpone the scheduled June 5 start of the trial until June 17.
Defense attorney Jonathon Venzie said there are too many pretrial matters still unresolved for him and attorney Fred Werth to be ready by June 5.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Blankenship had no objection, agreeing that a number of matters must be settled before the trial. Campbell approved the postponement to June 17.
But the trial is unlikely to start on June 17, because the defense plans to offer motions then to quash indictments against Wheeler for robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Those charges stem from the prosecution's contention that Wheeler took Dicker's 9mm pistol - after wounding the deputy with a .22-caliber hunting rifle - and used it to fire a second, fatal shot. The prosecution argues that taking the deputy's pistol was robbery.
Wheeler has been held at a juvenile detention center in Christiansburg since the shooting.
The prosecution wanted to try the youth for capital murder, but Campbell recently limited the charge to second-degree murder. Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge William Thomas had ruled that Wheeler should be tried as an adult. The defense argued successfully that the murder charge could not be elevated beyond the one sent up from juvenile court.
Dicker was serving papers on Wheeler at the home where the boy lived with his grandmother when Dicker was shot. The papers charged Wheeler with car theft.
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