ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609130022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Two Max Meadows men charged with murder in the death of a 17-year-old boy from exposure last January asked for separate trials Tuesday, partly because each will try to shift blame to the other.
Jason Dennis Hibbs, 20, and Eric Dwayne Ball, 21, are also charged with abducting Ricky Lee Coleman, a former Pulaski County resident who had been living in a Max Meadows trailer park with his mother for several months before his body was found in a creek Jan.21.
Also charged with abduction is Eric Wimmer, another Max Meadows resident who turned 18 after the incident. Because he was a juvenile at the time, a hearing Tuesday on whether he should be tried with the others was closed to the public on a motion by Marc Alan Leblanc, his attorney.
Circuit Judge Colin Campbell ruled that Wimmer, if indicted, would be tried as an adult. He will consider Tuesday's arguments before deciding on a joint trial or separate ones for Hibbs and Ball, who have already been indicted.
An autopsy showed Coleman died from exposure, with alcohol poisoning as a factor.
All three defendants have given statements to police, some transcribed and some on videotape. Generally, they indicate Coleman was drunk and became destructive while attending a party. Later, while unconscious, Coleman was placed in a car trunk, driven to a remote area and rolled over a bank into the creek, where his body was found several days later.
Jonathon Venzie, the attorney for Ball, said Coleman was already drunk and the fuss was over when his client and Wimmer arrived at the Hibbs home. He argued for separate trials because, he said, all three had varying degrees of culpability, so the evidence would be different.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Blankenship has not requested a joint trial because Wimmer's status in the case was not decided.
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