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Thread: Byron Booker and Jordan Brown Sentenced in 2020 GA Murder of Specialist Austin J. Hawke

  1. #1
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    Byron Booker and Jordan Brown Sentenced in 2020 GA Murder of Specialist Austin J. Hawke





    2 Indicted in Fort Stewart Soldier's Death

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    2 former soldiers have been indicted on charges in the stabbing death of another soldier on a Georgia military base, according to court documents unsealed Monday.

    Byron Booker, 28, of Ludowici and Jordan Brown, 21, of St. Marys are charged in the death of Specialist Austin J. Hawke, 24, at Fort Stewart.

    Booker is charged with premeditated murder and murder of an armed services member. Booker and Brown are charged with felony murder; assault on an armed services member; burglary; and conspiracy to retaliate and retaliation against a witness. If convicted, both men could face the death penalty.

    The 21-page indictment alleges Booker and Brown conspired to commit the offenses against Hawke in retaliation for Hawke reporting Booker to Army leadership for "poor leadership, poor military performance, and maltreatment of subordinates" prior to Booker's Army discharge, and in retaliation for Hawke reporting Brown for drug use during his service.

    The indictment said Booker and Brown discussed "silencing" Hawke, and discussed Brown providing Booker with a key to access Hawke's room. The indictment alleges Booker drove from his home on June 17, 2020, to Fort Stewart and entered the base on foot before walking to Hawke's barracks.

    The indictment then alleges Booker killed Hawke by "stabbing, cutting, and slashing" him with an edged weapon, and afterward Booker disposed of the clothing and shoes he was wearing at the time.

    Booker has been in custody since June 18, 2020. Brown was taken into custody after a U.S. District Court grand jury returned the indictment during its April 2021 term. Both defendants await further legal proceedings.

    "It is a high priority for our office to pursue justice for members of the military who are victims of violent crime," said David Estes, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
    Last edited by Steven; 03-02-2023 at 08:04 AM.

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    Ex-Army sergeant pleads guilty to murdering soldier in Fort Stewart barracks

    FOX 5 Atlanta

    FORT STEWART, Ga. - A former U.S. Army sergeant has pled guilty to murdering another soldier in a Fort Stewart barracks room.

    Officials say 29-year-old Byron Booker of Ludowici, Georgia faces a mandatory minimum of life in prison for the murder of 21-year-old Specialist Austin J. Hawk.

    "Byron Booker murdered a former fellow soldier in cold blood in retaliation for that soldier performing his duties as a service member," said U.S. Attorney Estes. "The FBI and the Department of the Army Criminal Investigative Division did outstanding work in solving this despicable crime and bringing Booker to justice."

    According to prosecutors, Booker and 21-year-old co-defendance Jordan Brown talked about "silencing" Hawk to get back at him for reporting Brown for marijuana use.

    In the plea agreement, Booker admitted to getting into Hawk's barracks room on the night of June 17, 2020, and stabbing him repeatedly. A medical examiner noted that Hawk had 40 separate stab or slash rooms.

    The soldier's body was found in his room the next day.

    "Hawk’s family and friends will never be rid of the pain this senseless murder has caused them, but hopefully it gives them some sense of resolve to know that justice will be served," said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta.

    A former U.S. Army sergeant has admitted he stabbed to death a former fellow soldier whose body was found in his Fort Stewart barracks room in June 2020.

    Booker pled guilty to premeditated murder of a member of the United States uniform services. His co-defendent Brown awaits proceedings on charges of conspiracy, assault up a member of the United States uniformed services, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, retaliation against a witness with bodily injury, retaliation against a witness with killing, murder of a member of the United States uniformed services, and premeditated murder.

    https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/for...nt-guilty-plea

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    Second Ex-U.S. Soldier Pleads Guilty in ‘Bloody Conspiracy’ that Left Army Specialist Dead After Brutal Stabbing in Reprisal for Reporting Marijuana Use

    By Colin Kalmbacher
    Law & Crime

    A second former member of the U.S. Army on Thursday admitted to taking part in a violent and vengeful plot that ultimately resulted in the stabbing death of another fellow soldier.

    Jordan Brown, 21, who hails from St. Marys, Georgia, pleaded guilty to one count each of assault upon a U.S. servicemember involving bodily injury or a deadly weapon, and retaliation against a witness involving bodily injury, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced in a press release.

    The charges stem from the murder of 21-year-old then-Army specialist Austin J. Hawk, whose body was found in his Fort Stewart barracks room in late June 2020. A medical examiner’s report said that he had been slashed or stabbed some 40 times.

    Byron Booker, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of premeditated murder of a member of the U.S. uniformed services in late October of this year.

    Booker is the one who actually wielded the weapon – and is believed to be the instigator of the conspiracy – that took Hawk’s life.

    In his plea, Booker admitted that he and Brown talked about “silencing” Hawk after the specialist reported Brown for using marijuana, as he was required to do under Army rules and regulations.

    “Brown learned of the report almost immediately and attempted to confront Hawk by calling him and visiting Hawk’s barracks room,” an appendix in Brown’s plea agreement notes. “Hawk told Defendant Brown through the door he did not want to talk about it and warned Defendant Brown not to touch his vehicle.”

    Another, unidentified soldier made a similar report about Brown, and he was forced to undergo urinalysis. After testing positive for THC, the Army began what they call “involuntary separation” proceedings.

    “Brown was angry at Hawk, as he believed Hawk had cost him his position in the Army, his paycheck, his housing, and possibly his relationship with his father,” Booker’s plea agreement says.

    But there was quite a bit of daylight between what Brown wanted to happen and what Booker actually did to Hawk under dark of night.

    Brown and Booker, convinced Hawk was a “snitch,” originally discussed beating the specialist up, damaging his car, and breaking some of his other personal property in his room. As the duo’s talks wore on, however, there was agreement that Hawk should be “silenced.”

    But that agreement was tenuous and wouldn’t last.

    Brown quickly came to doubt the efficacy of their plan – wherein he, while serving as the “staff duty” runner, would sneakily provide Booker a barracks master key, that Booker would stealthily the fatal deed, and then the killer would return the key before anyone noticed it was gone.

    “Who’s gonna find out?” Booker pressed his balking co-conspirator. “It’s gonna be four in the morning – dark – ain’t nobody up; ain’t nobody gonna be outside; no one’s gonna find out.”

    But Brown still worried about getting caught.

    “They aren’t gonna have anything,” Booker continued. “We don’t even know if they can check the locks. They’re not gonna find anything.”

    By the end of discussions, Brown was out on the reprisal killing but still in for some violence. He told Booker that a murder was crossing the line because the “punishment should fit the crime” and repeatedly told Booker that the specialist did not, after all, deserve to be “silenced.” As a suggested compromise, Brown told his friend that Hawk should have his jaw broken instead.

    Then, after Brown told his girlfriend that he was being kicked out of the Army, his girlfriend broke up with him. Dejected, he spoke with Booker again. This time, the killer was left with the impression that the murder should be completed.

    On the night of the killing, the pair went to the McDonald’s drive-thru, smoked marijuana, and discussed “life and existentialism,” settling on a version of the French philosophy that says “things don’t matter and you can do anything,” Brown’s plea agreement notes.

    Right after midnight on June 17, 2020, Booker illegally entered Fort Stewart by walking around concrete barriers at the commercial vehicle entrance. Then he traveled a mile on foot before reaching the barracks. Booker’s plea agreement notes that he probably “somehow caused Hawk to open his door from the inside.”

    Hawk tried to put up a fight. For naught.

    After a lengthy struggle, Hawk was dead. Booker stabbed him with a blade in the brain, lungs, and kidney. A three-inch gash across his throat, medical examiners wrote, was the fatal blow. During the fight, Booker accidentally cut his own hand, and was bleeding as he left.

    Brown would later tell investigators that he heard the tussle but that he thought Hawk was just exercising or moving furniture.

    Booker was arrested within hours of the slaying.

    Brown was indicted and arrested in April 2021.

    “The guilty pleas of these two defendants firmly establish their culpability in the despicable murder of a former fellow soldier in retaliation for performing his duties as a service member,” said U.S. Attorney David Estes, a retired U.S. Army Colonel. “They will now be held accountable for their bloody conspiracy.”

    A GoFundMe campaign by and for Hawk’s family said loved ones were “devastated” by his death.

    “The heinous murder of Austin has left his family devastated. They are in disbelief to find out their beloved son was murdered by his fellow servicemen. No family should have to endure what Austin’s family have had to go through,” Austin Hawk’s family said. “It is unimaginable to realize your child who is serving his country would be murdered by the very people who he called his brothers.”

    If a judge accepts his plea, Brown faces between 198 and 240 months in federal prison.

    https://lawandcrime.com/crime/second...marijuana-use/
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  4. #4
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    Ex-Army sergeant sentenced to life in barracks slaying

    A former Army sergeant has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally slashing and stabbing a fellow soldier dozens of times in his barracks

    AP

    SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Army sergeant has been sentenced to life in federal prison for fatally slashing and stabbing a fellow soldier dozens of times in his barracks at a Georgia base.

    A U.S. District Court judge in Savannah sentenced Byron Booker, 29, on Thursday. Booker pleaded guilty last fall to a federal charge of premeditated murder of a member of the U.S. military in the killing of 21-year-old Army Spc. Austin Hawk at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

    Booker previously admitted in court to plotting the slaying with another soldier whom Hawk had reported to superiors for smoking marijuana.

    The June 2020 killing happened barely a month after Booker was honorably discharged from the Army when he completed his time on active duty, according to court records. Prosecutors said Jordan Brown, a soldier from Booker’s former unit, came to Booker complaining that Hawk had ruined his life by reporting him for drug use. Brown said he was being kicked out of the Army.

    According to documents, Hawk was alone in his barracks room when Booker got him to open the door after midnight on June 17, 2020. Booker repeatedly slashed and stabbed Hawk with an unspecified sharp weapon. The medical examiner counted 40 wounds, including a fatal gash across Hawk’s throat.

    Brown pleaded guilty in December to charges of assaulting a military service member and intimidating a witness. He is still awaiting sentencing.

    https://www.livingstonenterprise.com...45aa9fddc.html
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    Second ex-soldier sentenced in Ft. Stewart stabbing death

    SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — A second former U.S. Army soldier has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to his role in the stabbing death of a fellow soldier at his Fort Stewart barracks.

    Jordan Brown, 23, of St. Marys, Ga. was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.


    This sentence comes after Brown’s co-defendant, Byron Booker, 29, of Ludowici, Ga was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the premeditated murder of a servicemember.

    “Both of these defendants are responsible for the brutal murder of a U.S. Army soldier who honorably performed his duties as a service member,” said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. “The final sentence in this case hopefully provides justice for Specialist Austin Hawk, and holds his killers accountable.”

    Brown admitted that he and Booker talked about ‘silencing’ Specialist Austin J. Hawk in retaliation for Hawk reporting Brown’s marijuana use to U.S. Army leadership. Booker entered Hawk’s barracks and “slashed and stabbed Hawk repeatedly with a sharp-edged weapon.”

    A medical examiner noted 40 separate stab or slash wounds. Brown was in his own barracks room on the floor below Hawk’s room during the assault, officials say.

    Hawk’s body was found in his barracks the next day.

    There is no parole in the federal system.

    https://www.wsav.com/crime-safety/se...ing-death/amp/
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

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    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

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