Monroe County President Judge Ronald Vican denied Thursday three pre-trial defense motions by public defender William Sayers, who is defending Charles Hicks in the murder case of Deanna Null.
Because the state believes that there were "aggravating circumstances" in the killing, the prosecution is seeking the death penalty.
The murder of 33-year-old Deanna Null made national headlines when body parts were found by a Pennsylvania state road crew. Police officers sent to investigate soon realized that the remains found by the road crew weren't the only ones dumped.
A search of the area radial to the intersections of Route 80 and Route 380 found that eight bags containing body parts had been strewn over a 15 mile-wide area, according to Mahalo.com. After several days of searching the area, law enforcement authorities felt they had located most of the homicide victim but could not find the hands.
The murder victim's hands had been cut off in an attempt to impair law enforcement ability to identify the victim. The hands were discovered several weeks later in the Tobyhanna, Penn., home occupied by Hicks, then an employee of Tobyhanna Army Depot.
The hands were wrapped in newspaper and hidden in the wall space of Hicks' home, according to The Times Leader. Null's severed head was found alongside the highway about 200 yards from where Hicks lived.
One of the pre-trial motions denied by Vican was an unusual request that Hicks' mother join the defense team. A member of the defense team could not then serve as a witness for the prosecution, which is expected to call Hicks' mother to the stand.
Sayer also requested that the prosecution turn over records of Hicks' previous arrests. The prosecution team objected. For one thing, prosecutors had already turned over the records, they said. For another, Hicks' prior arrest record would be inadmissible in court.
A defense request to introduce an autopsy report by forensic pathologist Sarah Funke was also denied. The pathologist who prepared the report couldn't appear due to a medical condition, Sayers said.
While the defense attorney claimed the forensic pathologist had medical problems which prevented her testimony, Vican suggested that Sayer work out some other way to obtain the testimony of the expert witness.
Vican denied the motion to present the autopsy report without the person who produced it. Otherwise, the prosecution would not be able to cross-examine or otherwise determine the accuracy of the report.
The importance of Funke's autopsy report to Hicks' defense attorney is that it undermines the prosecution's death penalty case. The prosecution has charged Hicks with capital murder because it believes he tortured Nulls before killing her.
The grisly autopsy report indicates that the body was dismembered only after the victim was dead and that "aggravating circumstances" did not apply. Whether or not a jury believes that will determine whether Hicks, if convicted, would be sentenced to death.
According to a Monroe County Court Administrator, jury selection for Hicks' capital murder trial is set to begin September 12.
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent contributor to Yahoo with news pertaining to Pennsylvania.
