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Thread: James Hawkins, Jr. (aka James William Thomas) - Tennessee Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Sunday morning service has special meaning for Gaither family

    MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - A day after a jury gave James Hawkins the death penalty for a horrific murder, relatives of the woman he was convicted of murdering used their faith to help them deal with the tragedy.

    Sunday morning worship services at New Bellevue Ministries Church took on a special meaning. It was Charlene Gaither's family's first service since the man who murdered her was given the death penalty.

    "I would ask the community to pray for her entire family," said Bishop Toney Hastings. "Keep them lifted up."

    Hastings has been ministering to Gaither's father and other family members. He said the trial of Hawkins took a toll on the Gaither family, especially her father.

    "It was just a horrific murder," said Hastings. "He was saddened by it, obviously. That was his youngest daughter and it was devastating to him."

    Hastings testified at Hawkin's trial about Gaither's father and the impact her death had on him. He said Gaither's children have also been affected.

    "They are going through counseling, extreme counseling at this time," he said.

    Hastings said plans are underway to raise donations to help Gaither's children with school expenses and other needs. Meanwhile, efforts to find peace in the midst of the tragedy go on.

    "I want you to know that God is still in the blessing business," said Hastings.

    Hawkins has another court date scheduled for July 20. He was sentenced on the false reporting and abuse of corpse charges. He can get up to 18 years for those charges.

    http://www.wmctv.com/story/14890562/...gaither-family

  2. #12
    Passed away. Rob's Avatar
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    This one left me speechless. What a horrific crime, and what a horrible individual. I can't even begin to imagine the degree of scars that child will have and how this will affect her life. I hope all who were affected by Mr. Hawkins' actions can move on and have something resembling a 'normal' life.

  3. #13
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    Surprise!

    Attorney to Appeal James Hawkins' Death Sentence

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The defense attorney for James Hawkins said his client's case isn't over. Last week Hawkins was convicted for killing and dismembering his girlfriend Charlene Gaither in 2008. A jury sentenced Hawkins to death, but Gerald Skahan said they plan to continue fighting through the lengthy appeals process.

    "When you try death cases it's kind of like a medical malpractice suit, they're very, very involved," said Skahan. "In any death penalty case, when there's a conviction, there's a motion for a new trial, which is really the vehicle used to get to an appeal to start the appeal process."

    On Saturday, a jury sentenced Hawkins to death for the 2008 murder and dismemberment of his girlfriend Charlene Gaither.

    "It's pretty complicated where it goes from here, it's a long process," said Skahan.

    Skahan said the average death penalty case in Tennessee takes 20 years. He said that's because there's about 10 different levels of appeals. "Every different level every judge looks at it, every lawyer looks at it, and evaluates on it, looks at it, rules on it."

    He said it's not that uncommon for rulings to get reversed. "I've probably tried 5 cases that were originally tried in the 70's and 80's and they were reversed when they were tried at the Federal level 15, 18 years later," he said.

    He said there's no telling what is likely to happen in Hawkins case, but said as his defense attorney, it's part of his job to try and get him off death row. "You never give up, in any criminal case you just don't give up."

    Skahan said he started working on the case about six months ago, after joining the Public Defender's Office to specifically handle death penalty cases.

    http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news...e-rpt-20110613

  4. #14
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    Memphis man on death row who killed, dismembered woman gets 18 more years

    A man convicted and sentenced to death for the murder and dismemberment of the mother of their three children was given an additional 18 years in prison this morning.

    James Hawkins, who has 19 prior felony convictions, was sentenced to the maximum 12 years for filing a false missing person report and six years for abuse of a corpse.

    The judge called Hawkins a dangerous, professional, career offender who has little regard for human life.

    "Society needs to be protected from him," said Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft, adding that the death penalty was not a certainty. "The laws could change. Charles Manson once was under the death penalty and now he comes up for parole every year."

    Hawkins, 34, a warehouse worker who was on parole, was convicted in June in the stabbing and strangulation of Charlene Gaither, 28, on Feb. 9, 2008, in their Raleigh apartment.

    According to testimony, he then made his 12-year-old daughter help him dismember the body with an electric skill saw and dispose of her mother’s body parts in DeSoto County, Miss. The victim's head was never recovered.

    "All murders are horrible," said state prosecutor Missy Branham, "but some are especially atrocious and this is one of them."

    Hawkins served about 10 years of a 15-year sentence and was paroled in September of 2007 for a series of aggravated robberies and aggravated assaults.

    He also has a pending charge of rape of a child, the victim being his own daughter.

    No trial has been set.

    Hawkins was expected to be returned to death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville as the 12-step death penalty appeals process begins.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...embered-woman/

  5. #15
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    Father Of Death Row Inmate Convicted Of Child Rape

    A year and a half ago, James Hawkins, Sr., watched his son get the death penalty now he’s in a fight for his own freedom. He’s accused of 5 counts of child rape, in cases that involve his own daughters. We caught him coming out of court.

    “You don’t have anything to say to me,” James Hawkins, Sr. snapped at our camera.

    During the trial for James Hawkins, Jr., the defense team said his dysfunctional family may have led to his unthinkable crime of decapitating his girlfriend, Charlene Gaither, cutting off her hands and feet and dumping her body on the side of the road. A mitigation specialist for defense attorney, Gerald Skahan, said Hawkins father physically abused him and his brother and sexually abused his sisters.

    Now those words meant to evoke sympathy for his son are haunting Hawkins, Sr., who the mitigation specialist testified actually lost count of his children, but knows he has at least 20. Five of his daughters say he raped them when they were younger. Recently, DHS removed another five younger children from the home of Hawkins, Sr. Reports are some of them are victims, too. We asked his lawyer, what kind of father he’s been to his children.

    “I like the man; of course he’s a client. I don’t know anything about his parenting skills,” said Leslie Ballin, Hawkins’ lawyer.

    His attorney is asking for separate trials in hopes of proving Hawkins, Sr. is not guilty. Meanwhile, prosecutors hope to prove otherwise and are considering calling his death row inmate son back from prison to testify about what he knows.

    “They lied on my son, too. I ain’t got nothing to say,” said Hawkins, Sr.

    He added, “They’re lying on me. I don’t have anything to anything to say. Get out of my face.”

    Hawkins, Sr. will be back in court Tuesday. The judge will decide if he’ll have 5 separate trials and if he’ll revoke Hawkins’ bond as requested by prosecutors. They believe he’s a danger.

    http://wreg.com/2012/11/16/father-of...of-child-rape/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #16
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    Attorney for Memphis child rape suspect asks to move trial, citing newspaper story

    An attorney for accused child rapist James Hawkins, 63, asked the judge to move Hawkins’ trial out of Memphis due to a front-page story in Tuesday’s edition of The Commercial Appeal.

    Leslie Ballin filed a motion, attaching a copy of the article, arguing Tuesday that pretrial publicity could taint the jury. The article described all the charges against Hawkins — five counts of child rape involving five victims. Jurors, however, will only hear testimony from two of the victims — now ages 14 and 18 — during this week’s trial.

    Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee granted Ballin’s request to hold separate trials for the other three victims, with jurors shielded from information about those allegations.

    But during a hearing Tuesday, Coffee cited freedom of the press and open courts in deciding not to move the trial. He said Ballin and prosecutors can ask prospective jurors whether they read the article. Attorneys can ask those who say they did whether the story left them with a strong opinion they couldn’t set aside to listen to the evidence. Then, Coffee said, those residents could be struck from the jury.

    Coffee said he thought with more than 50 potential jurors at hand, enough jurors could be seated.

    Opening statements and testimony are expected to begin Wednesday.

    Hawkins is the father of death row inmate James Hawkins Jr., convicted of strangling and stabbing his girlfriend after she confronted him about her suspicions that he was sexually molesting their 12-year-old daughter.

    He forced the girl to help dismember the body, including holding her mother’s head while he removed it with a circular saw, before ordering her to help him dispose of the body parts.

    Hawkins Jr. faces his own child rape trial, with no date set yet.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...pect-cites-in/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  7. #17
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    Jurors find James Hawkins Sr. guilty on two counts of child rape

    Jurors on Friday found James Hawkins Sr., 63, guilty of two counts of child rape.

    Each count carries an automatic sentence of 25 years in prison with no parole. Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee would determine whether Hawkins would serve the sentences back-to-back or concurrently.

    Earlier in the day, a 14-year-old girl sat in a courtroom with relatives and listened as she was characterized as dishonest by the defense and courageous by prosecutors in the trial of Hawkins.

    The defendant, who sometimes leaned on a cane, walked into the courthouse — beside his wife of 12 years — a free man. His attorney, Leslie Ballin, argued that he should leave that way, too.

    Ballin pointed to his client’s age and said a 25-year sentence would be tantamount to a life sentence.

    Hawkins’ son and namesake is on death row for murder and awaiting his own trial for child rape. Hawkins Sr. was convicted of raping a 14-year-old relative when she was 5 to 10 years old, and her 18-year-old half-sister when she was ages 11 to 14.

    During his closing arguments, Ballin pulled up a chair and sat down to face jurors at eye level while pointing to inconsistencies in the accounts the two teens have given during the years since his client’s arrest in September 2010.

    “I’ve been asked by Mr. Hawkins to stand up for him,” Ballin said, while seated.

    He pointed out that his client, from the start, told police he was innocent.

    Ballin reminded jurors of the 18-year-old’s testimony that Hawkins, a relative, raped her too many times to count when she was in elementary and middle school. In contrast, when she first told a Memphis police officer about the abuse in 2010, she only mentioned one incident during the previous fall.

    “These stories have changed,” the defense attorney told jurors. “It’s nowhere close.”

    Prosecutor Eric Christensen said it was “outrageous” and “insulting” to suggest the girls made up stories about the defendant, their relative, with no suggested motive.

    “They have to sit here and watch as the defense attorney sits here and has a fireside chat with you and calls them liars,” Christensen said during his closing arguments. “We should applaud them for their strength. They had to get away from this sick man.”

    A pediatric nurse practitioner testified earlier in the week about finding old and new injuries in the then 10-year-old’s vagina caused from a “blunt force” and consistent with the child’s claims of ongoing rape.

    Ballin said the girl had an unexplained “abnormality,” that could have been caused by something other than rape.

    The prosecutor countered, “It wasn’t an abnormality. They were injuries, and he knows it. He’s trying to sugarcoat it.”

    Prosecutor Lessie Rainey told jurors the sisters “sat in that witness stand and they struggled to get the words out and tell what happened. They came in and told a room full of strangers the worst thing that happened to them.”

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...D=happeningnow
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #18
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    Memphis man convicted of dismembering girlfriend loses appeal of verdict

    James Hawkins, a Memphis man convicted in 2011 and sentenced to death for the murder and dismemberment of the mother of his three children, lost an appeal of the verdict in the case.

    The Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals issued a ruling Friday affirming the guilty verdict, stating that Hawkins failed to prove that the court erred in his case.

    “In accordance with Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-206(c), we have considered the entire record and conclude that the sentence of death has not been imposed arbitrarily, that the evidence supports the trial courts finding of the statutory circumstances, that the evidence supports the trial courts finding that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the sentence is not disproportionate,” the court said in the ruling.

    “We have also reviewed all issues raised by defendant and conclude there is no reversible error. The judgments of the trial court are affirmed.”

    Hawkins, now 38, was convicted in June 2011 in the stabbing and strangulation of Charlene Gaither, 28, on Feb. 9, 2008, in their Raleigh apartment.

    According to testimony during the trial, he made his 12-year-old daughter help him dismember the body with an electric circular saw and dispose of her mother’s body parts in DeSoto County. The victim’s head was never recovered.

    Hawkins was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

    In August 2011, Hawkins was given an additional 18 years in prison. Hawkins, who has 19 prior felony convictions, was sentenced to the maximum 12 years for filing a false missing person report and six years for abuse of a corpse.

    Hawkins appealed the verdict in his trial contending among several reasons that the court erred by denying his motion to suppress his statements given to the police and by admitting statements made by the victim through the victim’s children and through an application for order of protection.

    The appeal court, however, rejected those arguments from Hawkins, who did not testify during his trial but his three children did, including his then 15-year-old daughter who witnessed her mother’s murder.

    James Hawkins Jr. is on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville as the 12-step death penalty appeals process continues.

    His father, James Hawkins Sr., is doing 50 years after his conviction last year for raping two family members.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...rdict_07083977

  9. #19
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    TN Supreme Court to review death penalty case of man convicted of murdering, dismembering girlfriend

    The Tennessee State Supreme Court will review the death penalty case of James Hawkins, a Shelby County man who was sentenced to death for premeditated first degree murder.

    Hawkins was convicted in 2011 of murdering his girlfriend, the mother of his three children, and dismembering her body.

    Investigators said Hawkins forced their then, 12-year-old daughter to help dismember her mother and dispose of her body.

    Charlene Gaither was stabbed and strangled to death in 2008 in Raleigh.

    The court will consider multiple issues, including whether Hawkins’ statements to police and statements made by the victim to other witnesses should have been excluded.

    The court will hear this case in addition to several others Wednesday in Jackson.

    http://www.fox13memphis.com/top-stor...iend/462866266
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  10. #20
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    Death sentence upheld for man accused of killing, dismembering girlfriend

    By WMCActionNews5.com Staff

    MEMPHIS, TN - Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the premeditated murder conviction and death sentence of a Memphis man convicted of killing his long-term girlfriend and making their daughter help dispose of the body.

    In February 2008, James Hawkins stabbed Charlene Gaither in the presence of their 12-year-old daughter in their Memphis apartment.

    Hawkins made his daughter help hide her mother's body in the freezer and clean the murder scene. He went out and bought a power saw that day and then forced their daughter to help move her mother's body from the freezer to the bathtub.

    He used the saw to remove Gaither's head, hands, and feet, and then made his daughter help him return the body to the freezer.

    Later that night, he and his daughter put Gaither's body in her vehicle, drove to Mississippi, threw her body off a bridge, and disposed of her head, hands, and feet along the route they drove.

    Three days after the murder, Gaither reported the woman missing to police. The day after she was reported missing, highway workers in Mississippi discovered her dismembered body.

    Hawkins murdered Gaither, according to prosecutors, because she was threatening to report him to the police for sexually abusing their daughter. Their daughter testified at the trial about the murder, the events leading up to it, and that Hawkins had been sexually abusing her for many years.

    The jury imposed the death sentence on Hawkins. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence.

    The Tennessee Supreme Court also affirmed the conviction and death sentence.

    http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/35296106/death-sentence-upheld-for-man-accused-of-killing-dismembering-girlfriend?
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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

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