
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994                    TAG: 9406240515 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B3    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940624                                 LENGTH: NORFOLK

ACCUSED COULD FACE DEATH IN KILLING OF WIFE

{LEAD} The case against Lt. Cmdr. Michael Fricke grew stronger Thursday when a military judge said he would allow a jury to hear evidence that the supply officer had a love affair before his wife's death in 1988.

The ruling by Marine Col. Craig Carver opened the door for prosecutors to paint Roxanne Fricke as the victim of a vicious love triangle during an upcoming trial at the Norfolk Naval Base.

{REST} Such evidence could prove critical to a case built largely on circumstantial evidence and the word of a federal felon who claims he helped Fricke arrange the murder.

Fricke, 37, will be court-martialed on Aug. 15 on charges of allegedly hiring an auto electrician to shoot his wife as she left a supermarket in Virginia Beach. If he is convicted by a panel of officers, he could be sentenced to death.

Thursday's ruling came at the close of a two-day hearing when defense attorneys tried to block testimony about previous love affairs from being presented.

Cmdr. Robert Thomas argued that such evidence was tangential at best and would only inflame the jury panel against his client.

``The government has gone on and on, they're trying to paint a womanizing picture of Lt. Cmdr. Fricke,'' Thomas said. ```All of this evidence has nothing to do to show a violent nature or even a threatening nature of Michael Fricke.''

But prosecutors contended the issues were linked, in the words of a friend of Roxanne Fricke.

Lt. Jeffrey Henson said the friend will testify that Roxanne Fricke knew of her husband's love affairs and had threatened to leave him and take their son with her. That threat, Henson argued, led to Roxanne Fricke's death.

``What we want to show is the state of mind of the accused to move him to kill,'' Henson said.

{KEYWORDS} MURDER MILITARY TRIAL COURT MARTIAL

by CNB