Opening arguments are expected to begin tomorrow in the trial of Kevin Michael Briscoe, charged with the first-degree murder of Pamela Mary Barker, a 44-year-old Social Security Administration worker who was killed in her Columbia town house in April 1990.

Briscoe, 26, ofthe Stevens Forest neighborhood in Columbia, was arrested on May 7, 1990, by Howard County and Baltimore police.

The state is seeking a sentence of life without parole in the case, said Assistant State's Attorney Christine Gage.

Brian Jordan was also charged with first-degree murder in Barker's death and is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 24.

Police said the two men stabbed the victim, whom they apparently did not know, during the course of a burglary at the town house in the 9700 block of Basket Ring Road.

Barker was killed in her town house sometime after 10 p.m. on April 21, 1990, and her home was ransacked, police said. Her car was found abandoned less than a block from her home.

Police were led to Briscoe when he allegedly used Barker's credit card and his own driver's license just days after the slaying in an attempt to purchase clothes in a Washington boutique and to charge a motel room at the Towson Quality Inn in Baltimore County.