TN - Charlene Gaither, 28, slain, dismembered, Memphis, 9 Feb 2008

[White Rain]

Personally, I think they should take all murderers, rapists, and pedophiles, load them up in a space ship and fly them into the sun. Put it on pay per view if you want to offset the cost.

I'd pay for to watch!

 

[philamena]

WHAT????
This creep should be hung.

 

[Bobbisangel]

That poor little girl. I wonder if he thought if he made her watch and then participate that she wouldn't tell? I guess we will never know what he was thinking by making that little girl take part in that nightmare. I agree with public hangings and inviting the whole city to watch. I think while he is hanging there though he should be dismembered...alive! That is for what he has done to his daughter...the damage.

 

[GlitchWizard]

That poor little girl. I wonder if he thought if he made her watch and then participate that she wouldn't tell? I guess we will never know what he was thinking by making that little girl take part in that nightmare. I agree with public hangings and inviting the whole city to watch. I think while he is hanging there though he should be dismembered...alive! That is for what he has done to his daughter...the damage.

I don't think anything brings out the angry animal in us than someone who messes up a child.

 

[SewingDeb]

He doesn't admit killing her, just being there when she was killed. Bet he will blame it on her 12 year old daughter and claim he helped her dispose of the body.

 

[pedinurse]

this just makes me sick.

 

[sherri79]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,359966,00.html
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 12-year-old girl has testified in court that she saw her father kill her mother and he then forced her to help dismember the body with a circular saw.
Police said James Hawkins cleaned the saw and returned it to a store where he had obtained it.

 

[sherri79]

http://www.memphisrap.com/cgi-bin/content/pub9990263694155.cgi?itemid=9990289287567
"He was yelling at her and she said she was going to call police," the girl said in her testimony. "He stabbed her in the neck ... and choked her until she died. I just stood there. Then he put the knife to my neck and told me to help clean up the blood and put her body in the freezer."

According to the Commercial Appeal, the father, James Hawkins, reportedly the boyfriend of her mother, took the young girl and her two brothers to one store for cleaning supplies and then took them to Kmart to purchase a circular saw; this was after leaving the mother at the home deceased. They later returned and this is when the young girl testified that her father forced to help cut off her mother's head, hands and her feet. During her testimony Wednesday, the young girl stated her father said he would kill her if she did not do what he asked.

 

[philamena]

I doubt there is enough therapy out there to help this child totally heal.
Her father what??? Didn't want a divorce? :banghead:
Good lordy people are insane.

 

[absinthe]

I don't comment too much in this forum, but this is heartwrenching.

 

[Tonia]

Man made child help as he cut up body

A young girl who told police her father forced her to help as he cut up her mother's body with an electric saw said she could only look away when the head fell to the floor.

The girl is the chief witness against James Hawkins, 31, a prison parolee charged with first-degree murder in the death of Charlene Gaither, 28, a longtime companion with whom he had three children. His trial is scheduled for September and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Police say Gaither was killed in February 2008 at the apartment she shared with Hawkins, their then 12-year-old daughter, Keyuna Thomas, and two boys, ages 9 and 11.

Keyuna, now 13, told police she saw Hawkins stab her mother in the neck with a knife and then strangle her after she threatened to call police during an argument.

The girl told police her father forced her to help as he cut up the body a day after the killing.

Hawkins denies killing Gaither, but police say he acknowledged dumping her body along a rural highway after severing her head, hands and feet.
But prosecutors say Hawkins, who had filed a missing person report on Gaither, blurted out to police that he had disposed of her body.

"It was a voluntary statement, a spontaneous statement," assistant state prosecutor Patience Branham said.

Branham spoke Monday after a scheduled court hearing was postponed until May 22 on a defense petition to dismiss the alleged statement.

Hawkins, who is being held on a $4 million bond, has denied speaking with detectives about the killing.
Authorities say Gaither died on Feb. 9, 2008, about five months after Hawkins was paroled on a 15-year prison sentence for a string of robberies. His parole was set to end in December.

His daughter was 4 when Hawkins was convicted of armed robbery in 1999.
Hawkins reported Gaither missing Feb. 12 and her torso was found two days later in rural Mississippi, just south of Memphis. The severed body parts were not found, and the body was identified through DNA analysis.

The girl, now in the custody of her mother's family, said her younger brothers did not witness the slaying nor see their mother's body. But, she said, she was forced to help clean up the bloody scene and drag the body to a freezer where it was stored temporarily.
A psychiatric exam found Hawkins competent to stand trial.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6395323.html

 

[fran]

I read about this case the other day.

Truly horrifying.

That poor child.

fran

PS......of course the child here is not the only victim of this murder, but seriously, she's going to endure a life of he!! with what she witnessed and was made to do. terrifying, fran

 

[bessie]

MissIzzy brought this incident to my attention in another thread. When I started reading, I realized that this is a case I'm already somewhat familiar with because I was in the Delta the week Gaither's body was found in February, 2008. Hawkins forced their 12 year-old daughter to assist him in cutting up her mother's body. His trial was to take place in November. Now I see where it's been delayed until January because he's now facing an additional charge of child rape. I assume the 12 year-old is the victim. :furious:

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/082710-added-child-rape-charge-delays-hawkins-trial




http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331191,00.html

 

[Noexcuse]

MissIzzy brought this incident to my attention in another thread. When I started reading, I realized that this is a case I'm already somewhat familiar with because I was in the Delta the week Gaither's body was found in February, 2008. Hawkins forced their 12 year-old daughter to assist him in cutting up her mother's body. His trial was to take place in November. Now I see where it's been delayed until January because he's now facing an additional charge of child rape. I assume the 12 year-old is the victim. :furious:

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/082710-added-child-rape-charge-delays-hawkins-trial




http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331191,00.html

I cannot imagine anything so horrible as to be forced to watch or help with the dismemberment of ones own Mother.:steamed::banghead::furious:

 

[Kat]

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-gaithertrial4-story,0,7541394.story

Police: Man Admitted to Dismembering, Dumping Girlfriend's Body

Keli Rabon
6:26 p.m. CDT, June 7, 2011

(video coverage at link above)

Jurors for the James Hawkins murder trial heard compelling testimony Tuesday

Oh good lord, that article is heartbreaking testimony from one of the children

 

[chicoliving]

A jury issued a death sentence Saturday for a Memphis man found guilty of murdering the mother of his three children and then dismembering and disposing of her body.

The jury reached its decision shortly before 7:30 p.m. EST in the case against 33-year-old James Hawkins.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/1...g-his-wife-gets-death-sentence/#ixzz1P1mj9X3x

 

[0101ABA]

Death sentence upheld for man who forced daughter to help dismember her mother

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.