Body Parts on Pa. Highways Identified as Deanna Null/Charles Ray Hicks CONVICTED

[klaasend]

http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=7796353

Investigators Search for Answers in Woman's Death


The woman's remains were found scattered along Interstate 380 and 80 in Monroe and Lackawanna counties.
 
Wednesday, January 30, 11:44 a.m.
By Ryan Leckey

An autopsy is being done on the remains of a woman which were found dismembered and scattered along the interstate in the Poconos. The remains were found Tuesday morning in parts of Monroe and Lackawanna County.

The Monroe County coroner's office said the autopsy began just after 11 a.m. It's expected to take several hours. A forensic pathologist has to go over each body part closely to identify the victim and how she died.

The autopsy will be difficult since the woman's remains were found in garbage bags in eight locations along Interstates 380 and 80 in Monroe and Lackawanna counties.

Police consider their search for answers a homicide investigation.
 
Anyone with information is asked to call state police at 570-839-7701.

[Nut44x4]

OMG KLAAS...I was reading about this earlier today!! ACKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!
HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!

[Nut44x4]

Dumped body parts still unidentified
Authorities say victim was white with dark hair and heavy-set.

January 31, 2008

A woman whose dismembered body was found in garbage bags along two highways in the Poconos suffered ''multiple violent injuries, any of which caused her death,'' authorities said Wednesday after an autopsy.

They said it's a homicide case but wouldn't be more specific about how the woman died.

Though her identity is still a mystery, more has come to light about her physical characteristics since her remains were found Tuesday. Police said she was white and had dark hair with some gray mixed in. She was also described as heavy-set and about 5 feet 7 inches tall.

State police said Wednesday they were getting tips and missing persons reports at the rate of three to four an hour and from as far away as Nevada. Parts of the woman were found along Interstates 80 and 380.

''We've been receiving a ton of leads from both in-state and out-of-state,'' said state police Sgt. Gregg Mrochko, supervisor of the criminal investigation unit at the Swiftwater barracks in Pocono Township.

Troopers were among those attending the autopsy Wednesday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest. Police will couple the findings with other information to narrow down leads. People are still being encouraged to call with information, no matter how insignificant it might seem, Mrochko said.

The woman's remains were found at eight locations along a 15-mile stretch of the two interstates, primarily in Monroe County. A piece of her torso was found in a bag along I-380 in Covington Township, Lackawanna County.

The first bag was discovered by a state highway crew along I-380. Authorities revealed Tuesday that a severed head was among the remains, but did not disclose additional information about other body parts recovered.

Mrochko said police will conduct a more comprehensive search of the areas where the body parts turned up. It will probably involve state police aircraft and possibly cadaver dogs, he said. There was no organized search Wednesday.

State police investigators hope to develop a sketch of the victim to show the public. ''A lot of that depends on the autopsy and what they come up with,'' Mrochko said.

Monroe County Coroner David Thomas wouldn't elaborate on the ''multiple violent injuries'' statement about the autopsy findings. Trooper Robert Sebastinelli said authorities aren't saying more because they want ''to protect the integrity of the investigation.''

Figuring out the cause of death will prove challenging, according to one local expert. Dr. Isidore Mihalakis, a forensic pathologist for more than 30 years in the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey, said it's difficult to determine how someone died when the remains are a head and severed body parts.

If the neck is there, he said, specialists can look for evidence of strangulation, such as bruises or a crushed windpipe. They also can look for inflammation, active bleeding, signs of the head having been hit. And doctors can X-ray the parts for fragments of metal that might have come from a knife or bullet, he added.

Mihalakis, now medical examiner for Warren County, N.J., is not involved in the Monroe County case but said he's performed autopsies on several similar cases.

One involved unidentified body parts buried in 1975 that had to be exhumed a few months ago. All that could be done in that case, he said, was to send blood samples from the various parts to a laboratory to be sure they all contained the same DNA, meaning they came from the same person. Police are still working on the case, he said, declining to say more.

http://www.mcall.com/news/

[Nut44x4]

Body Parts on Pa. Highways Identified
20 hours ago

SWIFTWATER, Pa. (AP) — A severed head and other dismembered remains found stuffed in trashed bags and scattered along Pocono Mountain highways have been identified as those of a missing woman, state police said Monday.

Deanna Maria Null, 36, was reported missing by her family after authorities circulated a description of the victim. She was identified using dental records.

No arrests have been made.

The remains were found scattered along Interstates 380 and 80 in northeastern Pennsylvania, state police said. The first bag was found Jan. 29 by a worker salting roads.

Null's family called state police on Thursday to report her missing.

"They had seen media coverage on it and knew they had not talked to her in a few weeks. It wasn't uncommon for her to be missing," state police Lt. Robert Bartal said.

Null lived in the Scranton and Williamsport areas but was "relatively transient," he said. The last time she was seen alive was in mid-January.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hd_dMcRiKDFzZMWyeXVRR2G0tHyAD8UJO8PG1

[Nut44x4]

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_3body-1r.6260922feb06,0,4143619.story


Dismembered woman took risks for drugs
Scranton ex-boyfriend says he tried to pull her from perilous lifestyle

In the weeks before she was slain and dismembered, Deanna Marie Null broke up with her boyfriend, Russell Cummings, over her drug use.

''I tried to get her out of it,'' Cummings said Tuesday, standing outside the St. Francis of Assisi soup kitchen. ''But I couldn't.''

He had known her about a year, he said, and although she didn't usually take drugs in front of him, Cummings said he had seen her smoke crack cocaine occasionally.

Sometimes, he said, she'd arrange to buy drugs for people, pocket the money and not deliver the drugs.

''A couple times she robbed a couple guys. That I know. … She knew it was dangerous,'' Cummings said.

Police have described Null, 36, as a transient, but she did make some friends.

''She was a sweetheart. She wasn't mean,'' recalled Sharon Nemeth, 48, who knew her from a neighborhood bar called The Melba.

Null's head and some body parts were found Jan. 29 in eight locations along Interstates 380 and 80 in Monroe and Lackawanna counties. At the time, no one knew who she was. The mystery ended Monday when state police released her name.

Also Monday, police said they were looking for a car that might have figured in Null's death. They described it as a blue or black Cadillac or Buick, from the late 1970s or early '80s, with a four- or five-strip chrome luggage rack on the trunk lid. It had a white license plate from an unknown state.

The car was last seen about two weeks ago at Olive and Capouse streets in Scranton, troopers said. The driver was described as black, 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall with a short, military-style haircut and a stocky build.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact state police at Swiftwater at 570-839-7701 or 1-866-403-2946.

Null had a criminal record. In 2003, a state grand jury found she sold cocaine and crack cocaine to an undercover agent in 2001 and 2002 in Williamsport, where state police said she also had lived. The next year, she pleaded guilty to delivery of a controlled substance and conspiracy, according to Lycoming County Court records.

In 2004, she was sentenced to jail, and early the next year placed on work release. She had to pay a $1,340 fine, and paid the county intermittently from July 2005 through April 2007, court records show. But with no payments five months after that, the court on Sept. 21, 2007, issued a warrant for her arrest.

The court docket doesn't list other entries after that, indicating she was never jailed.

By that time, she had been in Scranton, according to Cummings and others who knew her.

Cummings said state troopers from Swiftwater found him Saturday night at N.J.'s, a center city Scranton bar that the regulars call Nellie's, and put him in a hotel room in the Poconos for the night. ''They said I was too intoxicated,'' he said.

The next day, he said, troopers interviewed him for several hours and gave him a lie detector test, which he said he passed.

Police were unavailable Tuesday night to comment on that. Those who knew Null said state police have been in Scranton interviewing people for the last few days.

The investigation led troopers to another bar Monday -- The Melba, a corner hangout in a gritty area of the city's Pinebrook section.

Over beers and front-page newspaper stories of Null's fate, customers talked about her Tuesday. Nemeth said she and Null sometimes drank together on the nearby railroad tracks.

It wasn't all good times for Null at the bar, though. She and Cummings were barred from The Melba at one point for stealing money and beer, bartender William Holland said. Customers said Null still stopped in when other bartenders were on duty to buy beer for takeout.

At the soup kitchen Tuesday night, Robert Naslanic said Null had a difficult time in the city. He said he met her accidentally one night in an apartment on Prescott Avenue where she had been staying. ''She wanted to smoke crack, and I got it for her. We ended up having sex,'' he said.

Naslanic said Null ''had been struggling in Scranton for two years.''

Back at The Melba, Mark Carter, 57, who lives next door, said troopers interviewed him about Null. ''She was an everyday street girl. I can't put it any better than that,'' he said.

[MuffyBee]

Man charged with killing dismembered woman in Pa.
STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — State police say a man has been charged with killing a woman whose dismembered remains were found dumped along highways in the Poconos more than a month ago.

Police say 33-year-old Charles Ray Hicks was arrested in the death of 36-year-old Deanna Null. He has told reporters at his arraignment Saturday that authorities had the wrong man.

Police have not explained the relation between Null and Hicks.

Her remains were found Jan. 29 in trash bags strewn along Interstates 80 and 380.

Hicks was charged with homicide, aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and abuse of corpse. He is being held without bail in Monroe County Correctional Facility.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-08-human-remains_N.htm

[Nut44x4]

Deanna marie null dismemberment case

April 6
A chilling profile
Crime fits pattern, expert says

There is a very detailed map at the site. Interesting.


http://www.timesleader.com/news/17333919.html
In the back of a prisoner transport on the way to the Monroe County jail, accused homicide suspect Charles Ray Hicks told state police troopers he knew why the severed hands of Deanna Marie Null were inside his bathroom.

But, he never said anything more.

That left investigators without an explanation of the murder and dismemberment of the 36-year-old woman, and why – if Hicks is guilty – he would discard all body parts but keep her hands.

Criminal personality expert Judith M. Sgarzi doesn’t know but has a theory.

“He kept the hands, about all my guess would be, to use to please himself or to relive his fantasy of what he had her do before he actually murdered her,” said Sgarzi, a professor of criminal justice at Mount Ida College in Newton Centre, Mass.

Sgarzi, an expert on criminal personality development and domestic violence, said a dismembering killer fits the psychological profile of a serial killer – a sexual sadist who has no remorse and commits crimes for pleasure.

She also suspects the body of a previous victim is somewhere out there.

While there have been no updates in the Null case since Hicks was arrested, Sgarzi believes a nationwide search for similarities into other unsolved dismemberment crimes may be under way. To search for patterns, Sgarzi said investigators will have to look at similar unsolved crimes prior to the Null case.

If police investigating the case know more, they’re not saying.

That leaves the public still wondering about the circumstances surrounding the brutal slaying of the former Williamsport woman.

What they do know is that the woman’s body parts were found in January – strewn across highways in the Pocono region.

Null’s hands were found inside Hicks’ Coolbaugh Township home in early March shortly after his arrest for the homicide.

The hands were wrapped in the Feb. 4 issue of the Scranton Times-Tribune.

Null’s body parts were found Jan. 29 along interstates 80 and 380 in Monroe County and 14 miles northbound along I-380 into Lackawanna County.

Both hands were then wrapped in four more layers – a bag placed inside a sock, an outer bag with detergent and another sock.

Hicks asked questions as he was being taken to jail following the arraignment on March 8, according to a trooper who testified at the preliminary hearing. He asked investigators what they found inside his home – and said they didn’t find a lot of blood, the trooper said.

Sgarzi, who reviewed the master affidavit on the case, said she thinks the person responsible for Null’s death and dismemberment is a disorganized killer who put the body parts out so they would be found.

Some of the body parts were found miles away from where Hicks lived, but some were found close his home. Null’s severed head was located about 200 yards from Hicks’ house.

“From the description I saw on the affidavit, it appears some of the body parts were found close to home to where he lived,” Sgarzi said. “If this is true (that he did it), it is a sign of the profile of a disorganized serial killer.”

Sgarzi said it is possible whoever killed Null led a double life as a serial killer who is a sexual sadist. The profile of a serial killer, she said, shows these individuals are loners who are pleasant enough to talk with people, but are leading a secret life that took root in childhood fantasies.

But, in time, the sexual sadist will play out his or her fantasies in reality.

Behaviors escalate over time, said Sgarzi,

“All of the research shows that whatever the crime, no matter how vicious, the fantasy is far worse,” she said.

The Null crime, she said, “is definitely the work of one person.”

State police have said Hicks’ demeanor has been calm, polite and relaxed, which Sgarzi said is not unusual for someone who might fit the profile of a dismembering killer. Hicks continues to deny any involvement in Null’s murder and dismemberment.

“If you watch interviews with the most famous serial killers, they are all calm and show little emotion, because they have no guilt – they have never developed it. That is what allows them to do this kind of crime.”

Hicks, 33, formerly of Burleson, Texas, was employed as a subcontractor at Tobyhanna Army Depot.

At the time of his arrest, according to a trooper, Hicks said he was not on any medications but was prescribed psychiatric medications about five months prior while dealing with a “rocky” divorce.

According to court papers, Hicks’ trouble with the law goes back at least six years:

• In 2002, he was arrested in Texas for assaulting a woman and causing bodily injury. The misdemeanor charge filed in Tarrant County was dismissed.

• In 2003, Hicks was charged with aggravated sexual assault, also in Texas.

• In 2006, he was arrested in Virginia for assault and battery and possession of cocaine. The assault and battery occurred in Hampton, where Hicks pleaded guilty. The cocaine charge was dropped.

• In 2007, he was charged with aggravated robbery in Tarrant County, Texas. The felony charge was dismissed in August 2007.

Sgarzi believes this shows a pattern of violence and anger.

“All assault cases are about anger,” Sgarzi said, “but more important, about displaying power over a victim.”

According to Hicks, he only met Null twice – and each time for sex.

Hicks told police he drove to Scranton in search of a prostitute. He said he had sex with Null on two separate occasions, and the two smoked crack cocaine, police said. He would give her drugs and money for sex and they would drive around in his Mercury Grand Marquis.

Null was last seen driving off with a man on Jan. 18 in Scranton, friends told police.

Null, a Williamsport native, had been living in Scranton for nearly two years, and investigators said she would work as a prostitute to support her drug habit.

His family members are steadfast in their belief that Hicks is innocent. They maintain he was set up and that he does not fit the profile of a dismembering murderer.

“No one fits this description until they are caught, and they are the least likely to stand out,” Sgarzi said.

Sgarzi believes the information presented in the affidavit and the evidence gathered by police would stand up in trial.

The evidence: A pair of human hands, the bloody shoes found in Hicks’ trunk and hacksaws found inside his home.

TIMELINE:
Jan. 18: Friends of Deanna Marie Null say they last saw her when she got into a car in Scranton

Jan. 29: Parts of a woman’s body are found in several trash bags along interstate highways in the Pocono region and Lackawanna County

Feb. 4: Police identify Null as the victim in the human remains case

March 8: Charles Ray Hicks of Tobyhanna, Coolbaugh Township, is charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of corpse in the death of Null

March 14: Hicks is ordered to stand trial in the murder of Null

“...(I)t appears some of the body parts were found close to home to where he lived.

If this is true, it is a sign of the profile of a disorganized serial killer.”

[Peaches]

Well this is certainly a disgusting little story, isn't it?  Good grief.  What a sick person.  I wonder how many other bodies will eventually be connected to this one perpetrator?  It will be a story to watch.

[Nut44x4]

Man who allegedly killed, dismembered woman had long history of domestic violence

03/28/2008

The man that police say murdered Deanna Marie Null and scattered her dismembered body along area interstates had a history of arrests for domestic violence, according to court records obtained by Times-Shamrock Newspapers.
 
Charles Ray Hicks Jr.was arrested and charged with assault and battery of his wife, Sheinina Mona Hicks in Hampton, Va., twice in the summer of 2006.

The first charge was dismissed in exchange for a guilty plea to the second, said Gregory C. Bane, the assistant commonwealth attorney who handled the case.

Although Hicks pleaded guilty, the charge was suspended until March 10, 2009, as long as Hicks stayed out of trouble, Bane said. The deal came about partially because Sheinina Hicks was in Chicago when the trial date arrived, making it difficult to prosecute, and because he was a first-time offender, Bane said.

The case may never have proceeded to trial, but Virginia has a “no-drop policy,” meaning that when an assault is reported, the state is required to pursue the case, Bane said.

Hicks went to trial on a charge of possession of a controlled substance in April 2007, Bane said, but he could not recall the details.

Hicks was found not guilty, Bane said.

Hicks was also charged with the assault of Blanca Huertas in Burleson, Texas, in 2002. The charges were dropped.

Efforts to reach Sheinina Hicks and Huertas were unsuccessful.
http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/index.cfm?BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&newsid=19432353&rfi=8

[Nut44x4]

September 26, 2008
Texas link to local murder investigated
DA reveals new angle in dismemberment case

STROUDSBURG — Police plan to visit Texas to see if there is any connection between a death there and a Monroe County murder case awaiting trial, the District Attorney's Office said during a Thursday court proceeding.

Charles Hicks, 34, is awaiting trial on charges of killing Deanna Marie Null, 36, dismembering Null's body, putting the body parts in trash bags and scattering the bags along interstates 380 and 80 in Monroe County. The District Attorney's Office intends to seek the death penalty against Hicks on the grounds that Hicks tortured Null, causing her death.

Defense attorney Bill Sayer had requested the court have the prosecution disclose what evidence it has of Null's torture, since this alleged torture is the basis for seeking the death penalty.

It was during a Thursday court proceeding on Sayer's request that District Attorney David Christine said troopers plan to visit Texas to see if a death there has any connection to the Hicks case. Police have been checking for any connections between the Hicks case and cases in jurisdictions outside of Monroe County, Christine said, declining afterward to comment further.

Hicks lived in Texas before coming to Pennsylvania to work at Tobyhanna Army Depot in January.

As for Sayer's request, Monroe County President Judge Ronald Vican gave Sayer 30 days to review the prosecution's information to see what evidence points to torture in the Null case and file any appropriate motions in response to that information. Another proceeding on the matter likely will be scheduled at a future date.

Null, a mother who lived at various addresses including Williamsport, was last seen alive in Scranton in mid-January, getting into a car that matches the description of Hicks' vehicle, according to a police affidavit. The scattered trash bags containing her body parts were found in late January.

Hicks told police he met Null in Scranton, when he went there looking for "girls to hang out with," according to the affidavit. He said he smoked crack cocaine with her and gave her money in exchange for sex on more than one occasion, but didn't kill her.

He said he was scared to come forward after learning she had been murdered because he figured she had been killed over drugs and that he himself might be in danger. He also told police he had been prescribed psychiatric medication in the past, according to the affidavit.

Police testified at a March preliminary hearing that they had searched Hicks' home in early March and found evidence including Null's severed hands, plastic trash bags and a saw.
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080926/NEWS/809260350/-1/NEWS0947

[Nut44x4]

DA's office: Hicks should be executed if convicted of Poconos murder
Toby man accused of killing Deanna Null, then spreading her remains along interstates

January 14, 2009
A Tobyhanna man accused of murdering and dismembering a Williamsport woman and scattering her remains along interstates 80 and 380 should be executed if convicted, the District Attorney's Office said Tuesday.

Monroe County Court will decide if the death penalty will be the alternative to life in prison for Charles Hicks, 34, if Hicks is convicted of killing Deanna Null, 36. If the court rules in favor of the death penalty and a jury convicts Hicks, the jury would then decide whether Hicks deserves life in prison or an execution.

Null, a mother of two, was last seen in January 2008 in Scranton, getting into a car matching the description of Hicks' vehicle, according to police. Null's body parts later were found in trash bags dumped alongside the interstates in Monroe County.

Police said they found similar trash bags, Null's severed hands wrapped in old newspaper pages and a saw in Hicks' home, as well as a blood-stained work boot in his car's trunk.

The district attorney contends that Null was tortured before death, and cites that as a reason to seek the death penalty. Defense attorney William Sayer in September asked the court to have the prosecution disclose evidence of Null's torture.

An omnibus hearing on the evidence was held Tuesday before President Judge Ronald Vican.

At Sayer's request, county Coroner Dave Thomas and Deputy Coroner Cindy Skrzypek were present. Sayer had planned for a forensic pathologist also to be present, but was not.

During the hearing, District Attorney David Christine and First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso submitted a report from New Jersey pathologist Isidore Mihalakis supporting the torture claim.

Sayer said the court should dismiss the report as hearsay since the prosecution did not have Mihalakis present in court to offer live testimony. Christine said a trial, not an omnibus hearing, is the proper venue for live witness testimony to be heard and found credible or not.

"I'm not asking the court to rule on credibility," Sayer said. "I'm merely asking for the commonwealth to give as detailed an explanation as possible on what evidence and testimony they have so that Your Honor can make an informed decision on whether they have established prima facie (sufficient evidence)."

Vican said, "Those issues are not for us to decide at an omnibus hearing."

Prima facie is determined during a preliminary hearing at the district court level, prior to a case going to county court.

With that said, Vican granted the prosecution's request to quash Sayer's subpoena motion to have the coroner's witnesses testify at an omnibus hearing. Vican released those witnesses.

Sayer presented also a change-of-venue request for the trial to be held outside Monroe County, due to the news coverage the case has received here so far and the possibility of that coverage tainting potential jurors. Sayer submitted various local newspaper articles and TV and radio news tapes.

The prosecution said it doesn't object to the news reports being submitted, but disagrees with the reasoning behind the change-of-venue request. Mancuso said that's an issue that should be determined during "voir dire," when potential jurors are questioned about their ability to be fair and impartial.

The prosecution said it likewise doesn't object to Sayer's request for an initial amount of $10,000 to pay for a mitigation specialist. This is an expert who investigates and testifies on mitigating circumstances that support not having the death-penalty option.

Vican gave attorneys on both sides a certain amount of time to file briefs on their respective arguments. The judge will review those briefs and issue a ruling in the future.

Hicks said he met Null in Scranton and gave her drugs in exchange for sex, but didn't hurt or kill her. He said he heard about her being murdered, but didn't come forward because he feared his own life might be in danger.

No information has been released on how the evidence police said they found in his home came to be there.

http://www.poconorecord.com/

[Nut44x4]

For those interested in this case, this link has a mound of info and sequence of events and a great highway map.
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS0947

[MuffyBee]

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100616/NEWS/6160330/-1/NEWS0947
Omnibus hearing scheduled in 'body parts' murder case
June 16, 2010

A hearing on an omnibus filed by accused killer Charles Hicks, 36, is scheduled for June 29, before county President Judge Ronald Vican. Hicks is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Deanna Marie Null, 36, of Williamsport, whose body parts were found in trash bags scattered along interstates 380 and 80 in January 2008.

The omnibus includes motions to suppress evidence found in the searches of Hicks' vehicle and home. A judge will decide whether to grant or deny any or all of the motions.

The county District Attorney's Office is seeking the death penalty against Hicks, saying there is evidence showing he tortured Null when killing her. Prosecutors said this makes the crime that much more heinous and warrants the death penalty. Defense attorney William Sayer said prosecutors have not given specific details on the alleged torture.
 ::snipping2::
He remains in Monroe County Correctional Facility without bail.

[Nut44x4]

FINALLY something on this case!!

6.8.11
Defense motions denied in Tobyhanna body parts murder case
 ::snipping2::
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty against Charles Hicks, 37, who is charged with murdering Deanna Null, 36, of Wilkes-Barre in early 2008.

District Attorney David Christine and First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso opposed all three motions presented Wednesday by Hicks' attorney, William Sayer of the county Public Defender's Office.

snipped

First, Sayer asked Vican to let the defense introduce forensic pathologist Sarah Funke's autopsy report on Null into evidence at trial, since Funke has a medical condition that will prevent her from appearing to testify. The autopsy report states Null's body appeared to have been dismembered after she was killed, but that there was no determination on whether the neck dismemberment wound was inflicted before or after her death, Sayer said.

The prosecution said it will object to the autopsy report being introduced into evidence. Vican denied the motion, suggesting Sayer try other ways of producing defense expert testimony on the autopsy for trial.

Second, Sayer asked Vican to have the prosecution supply the defense with Hicks' prior criminal record, or at least state what that record entails, if they intend to introduce this at trial.

The prosecution said it has already supplied the defense with whatever prior criminal history it has on Hicks, though Sayer said the Public Defender's Office investigator was unable to find any of that information. The prosecution said this information would be inadmissible at trial anyway, so Vican denied the motion.

Third, Sayer asked Vican to let him make Hicks' mother a part of the defense team and grant her immunity from testifying as a witness. Vican, agreeing with the prosecution that there is no prior case law to support granting such a request, denied the motion.
 ::snipping2::
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110608/NEWS/110609741

[Nut44x4]

The case against Charles Ray Hicks remains mired in the courts


by steve mcconnell (staff writer)

Published: April 30, 2012

Her body, chopped into pieces and strewn along parts of Interstates 80 and 380 in the Poconos.
 
Her hands, found wrapped in the Feb. 4, 2008, edition of The Times-Tribune inside his home.
 
Yet four years later, Deanna Null's accused murderer, Charles Ray Hicks, is still waiting for his day in court and remains imprisoned at the Monroe County Correctional Facility.
 
"It's a very complicated case," said his public defender, William K. Sayer. "It's a death penalty case. What can I say?"
 
The case remains mired in behind-the-scenes arguments playing out through reams of court documents. Both sides are also waiting for a ruling from the state Superior Court before proceeding to trial.
 ::snipping2::

much more at link  http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/the-case-against-charles-ray-hicks-remains-mired-in-the-courts-1.1307998

[Nut44x4]

https://www.pahomepage.com/news/notice-of-execution-signed-for-charles-ray-hicks/

Notice of Execution Signed for Charles Ray Hicks
 posted Jan 19, 2018

HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU-TV) The Department of Corrections Secretary, John Wetzel, signed an execution notice for Charles Ray Hicks on Thursday for March 9th.

Hicks was convicted in November in the brutal murder of Deanna Null of Williamsport.

He cut her body into pieces, put them in garbage bags  and scattered those bags on interstates in multiple counties.

The law provides that when the governor does not sign a warrant of execution within the specified time period, the secretary of corrections has 30 days within which to issue a notice of execution.   

He was sentenced to death in 2015.