Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990 TAG: 9007250343
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
They met by chance for mere minutes - time enough for Spinner to help the younger man pull his truck from the ditch it was stuck in along a gravel road one night last November.
Certainly not enough time for Hawkins to have any reason for wanting Spinner dead, Hawkins' attorney says.
Attorney Richard Lawrence acknowledged to a jury Tuesday that his client fatally shot Spinner. He suggested, however, that Hawkins - who had been drinking before the shooting - must have believed he was acting in self-defense during a blurry chain of events that dark night.
"It doesn't make sense," Lawrence said of the prosecution's version of what happened. "Hawkins thought the man was gonna do something."
A tall, skinny 24-year-old with the trace of a mustache, Hawkins pleaded innocent to first-degree murder and related firearms charges Tuesday.
But Bedford Commonwealth's Attorney James Updike says Hawkins did just what the defense had called illogical - and killed a near-stranger for no reason at all.
Spinner, 51, was accustomed to helping travelers pull their cars out of that spot on Virginia 644 near the Spinner family's Cifax home, Updike said in opening arguments.
When he came upon Hawkins, his pickup truck and his two friends in the road, Spinner was quick to act as a "good Samaritan" and agree to help out, the prosecutor said. Once Spinner had towed the truck free using heavy chains, Hawkins pulled his hunting rifle from his truck and shot Spinner once in the chest, Updike alleged.
As Hawkins and his friends tried to drive off, they managed to get stuck in the mud again.
Hawkins had to scoot Spinner's body over so he could reattach his truck to Spinner's and tow himself from the ditch, Updike said.
With that, the group fled.
Though the details may never be known, Lawrence said there had to have been a reason for his client's action.
The defense attorney cited several factors he said could have contributed to Hawkins firing his rifle.
Spinner, too, had a rifle in his truck, Lawrence said. And both men had been drinking, as had Hawkins' two friends.
Spinner's blood-alcohol level was determined to be .16 percent at his autopsy. Later that night, a blood-alcohol test on Hawkins revealed a level of .10 percent.
"We've got four drunks up on a horseshoe curve" trying to get that vehicle out of the ditch, Lawrence said.
Lawrence also suggested that Spinner may have argued with one of Hawkins' companions about the way the older man was pulling Hawkins' truck out of the ditch.
Hawkins could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted in the case, which is expected to end today.
by CNB