THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 16, 1994 TAG: 9408160326
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
Panel selection is expected to begin this morning in the court-martial of Lt. Cmdr. Michael Fricke, a supply officer accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife.
Fricke, 37, faces a possible death sentence for the 1988 shooting that left his wife, Roxanne, dead in a parking lot of a Virginia Beach supermarket. The court-martial got under way Monday with attorneys on both sides of the capital murder case arguing last-minute motions before a military judge. A panel of senior officers will be chosen as the jury in the case, and testimony is expected to begin Wednesday.
The case against Fricke is built largely on circumstantial evidence and the word of a man who claims he helped Fricke arrange the slaying. Fricke has denied any involvement in the crime.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
Roxanne Fricke was shot to death May 13, 1988, by a man who approached her as she climbed into her car. He fired a pistol at her through the driver's-side window, striking her in the head and neck.
Fricke was arrested in October 1993 at his office in the Defense Contracting and Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio. He is being held in the Navy brig at Norfolk Naval Station. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Roxanne Fricke
KEYWORDS: MURDER-FOR-HIRE SHOOTING TRIAL by CNB