Cambellsville, VA: Wife pleads guilty to killing former Berea man

Mother of victim ‘at peace’ with sentence

By Lorie Love Hailey
Register Editor

RICHMOND — The mother of a former Berea man who was killed in 2009 says she is at peace now that his wife has pleaded guilty.

Geneva May Brown Hicks entered a guilty plea Friday in Taylor Circuit Court, admitting that she killed her husband, assaulted a woman and set fire to her sister’s home. In exchange for the plea, the prosecutor offered a 25-year sentence.

Shirley Hicks of Berea, mother of Randolph Scott Hicks, said Tuesday she was satisfied with the sentence, but would have liked her daughter-in-law to get more time in prison.

“But that (25-year-sentence) was what was in my heart,” she said. “I don’t think I could’ve faced going through the trial.”

She said she could not endure seeing the crime scene photos, or hear the story again.

“There’s no doubt she would have been found guilty, but I don’t know if I could’ve gotten through it (the trial).”

She said she thought justice had been served.

“It’s just been a terrible tragedy we’ve been through,” Shirley Hicks said. “It’s only by the love and strength of the Lord that we’ve made it through.”

Randolph Scott Hicks’ body was discovered May 2, 2009, after police responded to a call of a “fight in progress” at the Campbellsville home Hicks shared with his wife.

When police arrived at the home, a woman told the officers her husband had shot himself, according to a story in the Central Kentucky News Journal in Campbellsville.

Campbellsville Police Officer Jason Simpson said he entered the home and found Geneva Hicks’ husband with what he thought was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The couple’s 2-year-old son was inside the home at the time of the incident and was later taken to Geneva Hicks’ sister’s home on White House Road. (The boy, who now is 4, witnessed the shooting, said Shirley Hicks.)

Later that day, Geneva Hicks arrived at her sister’s home. Police said she knocked on several doors and a bedroom window trying to get her sister and others to come to the door, the News Journal reported.

A report from the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office states that witnesses there said no one opened the door and Hicks set the house on fire and damaged a bedroom.

The News Journal reported that Campbellsville Police Lt. Patricia Thompson said in 2009 that initial reports about Hicks’ death ruled it a suicide. However, she said, that finding was inconsistent with evidence and some statements made by Geneva Hicks, which led to further investigation and the medical examiner’s office ruling his death a homicide.

Geneva Hicks pleaded to amended charges of first-degree manslaughter, second- and fourth-degree assault, three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, second-degree arson and first-degree unlawful imprisonment.

If convicted by a jury, Hicks could have faced life in prison.

She is set to be sentenced April 19.

Shirley Hicks said she worked alongside the Taylor County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.

“They showed the greatest love and respect for my family,” she said.

“We gave great deference to [Randolph Hicks’ mother], and she was heavily involved in making the decision,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Miller said in an e-mailed statement.

The case had gone into mediation once, and Shirley was able to hear from Geneva Hicks then. Shirley Hicks said her daughter-in-law was “very hateful, rude and bitter.”

But after Geneva Hicks pleaded guilty Friday, she and her attorney agreed to meet with her mother-in-law and other family members, Shirley Hicks said.

“She did break down and cry and said ‘I love you all,’” Shirley Hicks said.

Her grandson lives with Geneva Hicks’ sister, and Shirley Hicks said she gets to visit with him often and talk to him on the telephone.

The Berea woman said her son and his wife had only been moved out of Madison County for about 11 months at the time of her son’s murder.

She said he was homesick and wanted to move back to Berea.

The last time she saw her son was 10 days before his death. He brought his son with him and visited for awhile, Shirley Hicks said.

“He called me three times that night on the way home, which was unusual for him,” she said. “He told me where he was at on the road and said ‘I love you.’”

She hopes everyone will remember what a “good, tender-hearted man” he was.

“Everybody that knew him loved him,” she said.

Lorie Love Hailey can be reached at editor@richmondregister.com or 624-6690.