VALPARAISO | Jury selection is to begin this afternoon in the case against Monica Hicks, who is accused of murdering one of her roommates in 2005 and dumping her body into Deep River in Lake Station.

Hicks, who is represented by county public defender Matt Soliday, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and assisting a criminal.

She and another roommate, Jesus Baca Sanchez, are accused of killing 45-year-old Ingrid VanEck, of Portage, with repeated hammer blows to the head because she was planning to sell her boyfriend's car to bond him out of jail.

Police said Hicks thought the car should go to her son, who was fathered by VanEck's boyfriend.

Sanchez described during a court hearing last month how he helped kill VanEck by striking her in the head with a socket wrench.

Sanchez has pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit murder in return for prosecutors dropping charges of murder and assisting a criminal.

Prosecutors agreed to a 40-year sentence for Sanchez and Porter Superior Judge Roger Bradford took the proposed plea agreement under consideration and will decide Dec. 15 whether to accept the agreement and carry out sentencing.

Bradford granted a request last week from Soliday to release some of the mental health records from Sanchez's stay at Porter-Starke Services.

Soliday said the records are needed because Sanchez is a witness in the case against his client and thus his credibility is a crucial issue.