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Jury Selection Begins For Gruesome 2008 Murder

STROUDSBURG — Jury selection began Monday for a death penalty case in the Poconos. Charles Hicks of Tobyhanna allegedly murdered Deanna Null in January of...

STROUDSBURG -- Jury selection began Monday for a death penalty case in the Poconos.

Charles Hicks of Tobyhanna allegedly murdered Deanna Null in January of 2008 and then scattered parts of her body along two interstates.

It's a case that's been stuck in the court system for more than six years, and now a jury is being selected to finally hear the case prosecutors have against Hicks.

It was January of 2008 when state police first started investigating a gruesome murder. A woman's body parts were found scattered along Interstates 80 and 380 in Monroe County. The highways were shut down while troopers and cadaver dogs gathered evidence.

State police say Charles Hicks is responsible. He allegedly killed Deanna Null, dismembered her body, and left her body parts in garbage bags on Interstates 80 and 380.

The case against Hicks has taken more than six years to get to trial.

In earlier hearings, testimony revealed that Hicks told troopers he was the last person to see Null alive and that he had sex and did drugs with her several times in January, 2008.

Hicks remained quiet as he was escorted to a Monroe County courtroom for the jury selection process.

In 2008, investigators found all of Deanna Null's body parts along the roadside, scattered like trash, except for her hands.

Those were severed and found wrapped in newspaper and stuffed inside a wall at Hick's rental home in Tobyhanna.

Years ago former coworkers of the alleged killer told Newswatch 16 they were in disbelief.

One of them, Armando Martinez, said the accused killer sat across from him at work.

"I remember the girl's body parts being found. I seriously can't believe it's Charles," Martinez said in 2008.

Hicks' landlord Amy Mercado was also distraught when the case originally broke.

"This is very scary and this is just a tragedy and how do you put this into words?"

If convicted of first degree murder, Hicks faces the death penalty, or life in prison without parole.

Jury selection is expected to last all week because each potential juror will be sworn in and questioned.

Opening statements are scheduled to begin November 5.

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