Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990 TAG: 9007260617
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
One was his own, he told investigators. The other belonged to the dead man.
Through several hours of questioning that night, Hawkins tried to focus the investigators' attention on Spinner's rifle as the ultimate root of his death.
Spinner, who had never before met Hawkins but agreed to help pull his truck out of a gully, became angry when Hawkins and his companions wouldn't pay for the towing help, Hawkins told investigators in the early morning hours after the November shooting.
Hawkins said Spinner then pulled out his rifle and aimed it at Hawkins' friend, Mike Meador, before turning it on Hawkins. At that, Hawkins said he pulled the trigger on his own rifle and killed Spinner.
A few hours later, Hawkins amended his story. Spinner hadn't actually pointed the rifle at anyone, but he seemed to be pulling it from the seat in his car, Hawkins said.
"I took it under my own that he was going to hurt somebody with the gun, and I figured it was either him or us, so I shot him," Hawkins said in the later interview.
Jurors in Hawkins' trial on charges of first-degree murder heard tape recordings Wednesday of Hawkins' statements that night.
But they also heard from Meador - the prosecution's key witness - who testified that Spinner never went near his rifle and that self-defense could not have been a reason for the fatal shooting.
Meador said Spinner, 51, had not argued with Hawkins or his companions.
The closest they came to a disagreement, Meador said, was when Meador tried to advise Spinner on how to hook up chains to the trucks. " `I come to pull you out; I'm going to do it my damn way,' " Meador remembered Spinner saying.
Once Spinner hauled the truck out of the mud, Meador said he stood next to him and thanked him for his help.
Suddenly, Meador heard a gunshot and saw a flash of light. Spinner took several steps backward and fell to the ground, Meador said.
Meador said the shooting came out of nowhere, adding that the men had not fought and Spinner had threatened no one. Meador said he did not even know Spinner had a rifle.
Family members have testified that Spinner carried the unloaded weapon in the cab of his truck during hunting season. Bedford prosecutor James Updike has alleged that Hawkins, 24, killed the older man for no reason.
A few minutes after the shooting - as the group fled the scene - Meador says he asked Hawkins why he had killed the man.
Hawkins never really answered. " `Just keep it quiet and won't nobody never find out about it,' " Meador said Hawkins told him.
According to Hawkins' version of the events, he acted quickly and in self-defense when he thought Spinner was reaching for a gun.
"I just assumed that he was coming out with the gun in his hand," Hawkins told the investigators that night. "Cause, you know, three white people and one black guy and some words being passed down between a couple of them. He probably got scared and thought that all of us was going to jump on him or something."
When Spinner turned back, Hawkins shouted "stop" and fired the gun, Hawkins said.
"I may have been completely in the wrong, but in my mind I think I done the right thing."
Asked why he hadn't checked on Spinner's condition, Hawkins said that was actually the first concern that came to his mind.
"But when I went around the truck, it actually startled me 'cause he was laying there and . . . I could see blood on his shirt," Hawkins told investigators.
Hawkins said he also couldn't explain why he went to the trouble to pick up Spinner's rifle and take it with him before driving off.
When he got home, though, Hawkins opened up Spinner's rifle and looked in its chamber. Spinner's gun had no ammunition in it.
"That's when everything come to me," Hawkins told the investigators. "I done shot a man for nothing."
by CNB