Wiccan beliefs and sexual preferences will take center stage in the trial of a North Carolina man accused of killing his wife, unless the defendant has his way before the start of his trial on Halloween.

Earlier this week, Robert James Petrick asked a Durham County Superior Court judge to keep all references to his neo-pagan religion and "sexual habits" out of his first-degree murder trial for the death of his wife, Janine Sutphen, a cellist with the Durham Symphony Orchestra, in January 2003.

Judge Orlando Hudson is expected to rule on the motions before jury selection begins Monday with Petrick, a computer consultant by trade, representing himself.

In a handwritten motion submitted by Petrick, the convicted felon argued that evidence seized from his home, including "books, adult films, clothing and sexual appliances," would compromise his right to a fair trial by placing undue prejudice on him.

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The accused murderer makes the same argument regarding his apparent involvement in "the practice of witchcraft, paganism, and the Wiccan religion," perhaps the most sensational elements of the case.

Around the time of his wife's disappearance, Petrick was involved in at least two extramarital affairs with other members of the Universal Unitarian Church.

Although prosecutors have been tight-lipped about the state of the evidence, a member of the church with whom Petrick was involved in a three-way marriage is on the witness list, and her computer was taken into evidence.

Petrick's motion also seeks to keep out his numerous prior fraud convictions, including the one for which he is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence.

The state has implied the evidence addresses Petrick's motive for killing Sutphen, 57, after she became aware of his uncontrollable spending and fraudulent tendencies.

Without the prior bad-acts evidence, the defense contends the state has little forensic or circumstantial evidence to go on, apart from cadaver dogs that allegedly picked up the scent of Sutphen's dead body on her pillow, around her bed and in her car.

"It's really a question of how much the judge lets in of his priors and background," Mark Edwards, Petrick's standby attorney, told Courttv.com. "The evidence of his involvement in paganism probably wouldn't go over well in Christian North Carolina."

Petrick, whose age flip-flops between 51 and 53 in court documents, told police that he last saw his wife on Jan. 21, 2003, when she left home for a rehearsal. Her car was later found with her cello inside parked near the Durham Symphony Orchestra in downtown Durham.

Sutphen's remains turned up in North Carolina's Falls Lake in May 2003. Her body was wrapped up in sleeping bags and a chain was tied around her legs. The absence of apparent wounds led police to determine the cause of death was asphyxiation.

Following an investigation of the couple's home, Petrick was charged with multiple counts of fraud related to bogus checks, including one for $47,866.

Petrick rejected an initial plea deal to second-degree murder and fraud charges. But just before jury selection began in July in his fraud trial, he pleaded no contest to a single count of obtaining property by false pretenses and admitted to being a habitual felon.

The habitual felon plea raised Petrick's sentence, in light of several convictions he had in Illinois in the 1980s on fraud and forgery charges, in addition to a stint in a federal halfway house for tossing mail into a Dumpster while he was a letter carrier.

Since his conviction in July, when he dismissed defense attorney Edwards, Petrick has devised his legal strategy using a manual on criminal defense and a few hours of research per week.

Edwards remains on the case as "standby" counsel, sitting behind the defendant in the public gallery during the trial to advise Petrick on his defense if asked to do so.

Petrick faces a mandatory sentence of life without parole if convicted.

"The biggest challenge in this case is the defendant representing himself. In some ways, I have to take extra care to make sure the record is clean," Durham County Assistant District Attorney Mitch Garrell told Courttv.com. "We've given him the opportunity and encouraged him to accept the services of an attorney, but he has an absolute right to represent himself."