October 20, 1997 - Separate Trials Requested -Trial Will Be Televised
Criminal Court Judge James Beckner will rule next month on Defense motions that separate trials be heard for suspects in the April Lillelid murders in Greene County.

During a motions hearing Thursday morning, Judge Beckner heard arguments from attorneys for the six suspects, but at the request of Attorney Mark Slagle, who represents Edward Dean Mullins, Beckner withheld a ruling on motions for separate trials until Slagle argues his motion during the next hearing November 18th.

District Attorney General Berkeley Bell, meanwhile, contends all suspects should be tried together.

(BELL VOICER...OC....TOGETHER)

The judge Thursday morning denied several motions to dismiss, including motions by attorneys for all defendants that charges be dropped due to the illegality of Tennessee Code Annotated as its relates to imposition of the Death Penalty.

Judge Beckner also notified attorneys Thursday he will be granting a request by a local cable company to televise the trial, whenever it begins.
Frontier Vision Cable plans to provide gavel-to-gavel coverage to its subscribers, using the single camera video feed from the courtroom.