Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 25, 1993 TAG: 9305250504
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Well, almost.
It took a day of questioning of potential jurors in small groups to find 24 acceptable to both sides. Each side will strike five people from the panel today to come up with 14 jurors, including two alternates, to hear the weeklong trial.
And they will do it over defense objections because practically all of the potential jurors had read or heard about the case.
Midkiff, 28, is charged with capital and first-degree murder in the December 1991 stabbing deaths of 30-year-old Sheila Marie Ring and her 2-year-old daugher, Jasmine Marie Sutphin, at their home in the Woodlawn area.
He is also charged with arson in the burning of their home after their deaths.
The case has generated much publicity, including a news media suit which sought successfully to make public a confession Midkiff made when arrested.
Circuit Judge Duane Mink had denied a defense motion to move the trial out of Carroll County. Jonathan Venzie, one of the defense attorneys, said Monday that he still felt the jury was tainted by exposure to newspaper and broadcast reports of the crime.
Some potential jurors were eliminated because of what they had heard or read.
"Well, if they say he did it, he did it," said one potential juror.
"It's hard not to form an opinion when you're reading these awful things about a person," another said. "It's purely what I read in the paper. . . . It was my impression that he's admitted to doing it."
On the other hand, one man said he wanted to make up his own mind. "I have a disdain for newspapers," he said. "I'm never sure if they're telling things like they are."
But many more were eliminated because they had heard details of the case in conversations with others or because they said they could not impose the death penalty even if the evidence warranted it.
by CNB