Jennifer Hawkins, her boyfriend Frederick Badgero, and her nephew Larry Hawkins Jr., are all charged with felony harboring an escapee. News 13 spoke to Badgero and Jennifer Hawkins.
They claim they didn't help Phillip Stroupe.
I just don't understand why he just showed up at my house, why he would think it would be OK to come there, and I would help him, said Jennifer Hawkins.
Hawkins calls Stroupe an acquaintance. She says that when he knocked on her door Wednesday between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., she said he used another name and had covered his tattoos with makeup.
I came out to see who 'John' was, really didn't recognize Stroupe at first because he had makeup on, said Jennifer Hawkins.
Jennifer Hawkins and Frederick Badgero also claim Stroupe, who was armed, threatened their lives.
He told me to come outside, and I come outside and that's when he pulled the gun, and showed me the gun, and opened it up and showed me two spent bullets and said he'd do it to them, said Badgero, gesturing to his girlfriend.
Hawkins and Badgero said Stroupe had one request: to help him sink Thomas Bryson's Honda Ridgeline truck in a nearby lake.
He said he was wanting to take the truck and dump it in the lake, Lake James, and he said to follow him. I feel like he was going to kill me, said Badgero.
Badgero and Jennifer's nephew, Larry Hawkins Jr., followed Stroupe.
We were just trying to get him to go peacefully without any altercations, Hawkins said.
Badgero said he was there as law enforcement caught up with Stroupe on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Law enforcement are not convinced by their story.
