Trial opens for man accused in Pennsylvania woman's death, dismemberment

By Joe McDonald STROUDSBURG Pa. (Reuters) - A former electrical contractor at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in eastern Pennsylvania went on trial Wednesday on charges he beat, strangled and dismembered a woman whose body parts were stuffed into garbage bags and strewn along two interstate highways. Jurors in the trial of Charles Ray Hicks, 40, were warned by the prosecution they would hear gruesome details and see graphic pictures during the trial in Monroe County Court in Stroudsburg, which is expected to last about two weeks. Hicks is facing a potential death penalty, if convicted, and is being held without bail. "This case is a journey to the darkest inner recesses of the human soul," lead prosecutor Michael Mancuso said in his opening statement. Mancuso outlined how the investigation started with the discovery of a severed head and other body parts in black garbage bags by state highways crews on a snowy day in January 2008. The prosecutor also recounted how state police eventually arrested Hicks on first-degree murder charges, among others, after finding the hands of Deanna Null, 36, wrapped in socks and newspaper, hidden behind a wall in his home in the Pocono Mountains. Mancuso said the prosecution will present expert witness testimony that Null was tortured before she died. Jason LaBar, the public defender representing Hicks, told the jury Hicks is guilty of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse and disputed the prosecution's claim Null was tortured and murdered. He said medical experts disagree on the cause of death, which he said is undetermined. LaBar also referred to toxicology tests that showed Null had a significant amount of alcohol and cocaine in her system at the time of her death. He suggested Null died from a possible drug overdose and that Hicks panicked and "drug dumped" Null because he did not want to get in trouble with the police. Witnesses interviewed by state police in Scranton said they saw Null entering a car driven by a man they later identified as Hicks, according to prosecutors. Hicks, originally from Texas, had recently started working at the Tobyhanna Army Depot. Besides the hands, police recovered black plastic garbage bags in the attic of Hicks's house they said matched the bags containing the body parts. They also found knives, saws and blades in the house. Police say Hicks admitted he had sex with Null and smoked crack cocaine with her. (Editing By Frank McGurty and Bill Trott)