File photo of a judge’s gavel. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
KINSTON, N.C. (AP) — A man and wife charged in the death of a Kinston woman whose dismembered body was found in Texas will be tried together.
A judge ruled Friday that 33-year-old Grant Ruffin Hayes III and his wife, 40-year-old Amanda Hayes, go on trial together later this year.
The Hayeses are charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Laura Ackerson, who had two children with Grant Hayes.
Parts of Ackerson’s body were found in July 2011 in a creek in Fort Bend County, Texas. Investigators have said they think Ackerson was slain in North Carolina before her killers hauled her dismembered body in coolers to Texas for disposal.
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