| Elswick gets life sentence
By David Hedges, Publisher
www.thetimesrecord.net
A Spencer man convicted in the beating death of a handyman was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found he was a three-time offender.
 Raymond Elswick, 43 (left) was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and conspiracy to commit kidnapping in July. Those charges related to the May 2005 death of Daniel Burns, whom police said was beaten to death before his body was dumped along a rural road.
Elswick, Joey Hicks and his wife, Crystal Hicks, were all charged with murder for the 51-year-old man's death, which began with a beating at the Hicks' home in downtown Spencer after Crystal Hicks allegedly saw Burns touching her 9-year-old daughter. Burns had been invited to the home to help with some repairs.
Both Hicks entered pleas to reduced charges instead of going to trial. Crystal Hicks was sentenced to a year for involuntary manslaughter and 1-to-5 years on two charges of conspiracy.
Joey Hicks is serving 15 years, the maximum term for voluntary manslaughter, and 1-to-5 years for conspiracy.
Elswick was the only one to go to trial. Amidst conflicting testimony from the Hicks, the jury refused to convict Elswick of murder and found him guilty of the same charges contained in the plea entered by Joey Hicks.
Like Hicks, Elswick would have been facing up to 15 years for manslaughter and 1-to-5 years for conspiracy, but his prior convictions made him eligible to be charged under the state's recidivist law as a habitual criminal.
Roane Prosecutor Mark Sergent, who headed up the case that led to the manslaughter conviction, could not handle the recidivist action. Before Sergent became prosecutor, he had represented Elswick on an appeal in an earlier case.
Calhoun Prosecutor Shelly DeMarino was appointed to handle the case, which got underway last Tuesday in Roane Circuit Court.
According to testimony, Elswick was convicted of burglary in Jackson County in 1985 and a breaking and entering at the Spencer Pizza Hut in 1994.
Elswick did not take the stand in the two-day trial last week that included testimony by Jackson County Circuit Clerk Keith Brotherton, Roane Circuit Clerk Beverly Greathouse, retired Jackson County probation officer Mike Slaven, Roane probation officer Patsy McCartney and Steven King and Michael Corsaro of the W.Va. State Police Crime Lab.
His attorneys, Lee Benford II and Morgan Hayes, raised several procedural questions, but were apparently unable to convince jurors that Elswick was not the same person in the earlier convictions.
The five-man, seven-woman jury deliberated only about 10 minutes before determining Elswick's fate Wednesday and Judge Tom Evans also wasted no time in handing down the sentence.
Elswick has been held without bond since his arrest in connection with Burns' death more than three years ago and has spent most of his adult life behind bars.
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