Accused killer goes to trial in death of popular USC professor

The long-awaited trial of Hank Hawes, charged in the brutal 2011 killing of a popular University of South Carolina professor, is set to begin Oct. 6 at the Richland County courthouse.

Hawes, 40, has been held without bond in Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center since shortly after Jennifer Lee Wilson was found stabbed to death in her one-story brick duplex in the 3700 block of Monroe Street in Shandon, an upscale in-town neighborhood populated with professionals and young families. She had suffered multiple stab wounds.

If convicted of murder, Hawes could be sentenced to life in prison.

Wilson’s killing is regarded as emblematic of an epidemic of violence against women that pushes South Carolina to the top in deaths by domestic violence. Her death defied stereotypes that domestic violence only affects people in low-income communities. Wilson was highly educated and successful.

“For generations, domestic-violence advocates have been trying to break myths and stereotypes about who the domestic-violence victim or survivor is,” said Nancy Barton, longtime director of the shelter Sistercare.

“That one horrific homicide probably did more to enlighten our community than years and years of work by advocates to help the community understand how virtually anyone can be vulnerable in an intimate-partner relationship.”

Two sides of Hank Hawes

Wilson, 36, was beloved by colleagues and students. After six years at USC, she was a Fulbright scholar, loved to snow ski and practiced yoga at a studio in Five Points.

She had just been awarded tenure and gotten a raise to $66,500. In her field – children’s literacy and teacher instruction – she was a shining star, faculty members said. Since joining USC in 2005, she had brought in more than $500,000 in grants and worked with children and teachers in places like Norway, Tanzania and China. She worked at Hand Middle School and led writer’s camps for young people.

“We identified with her,” said Sara Barber, director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. “Suddenly, it’s like this could happen to you.”

According to numerous sources who spoke with The State newspaper, Wilson had a relationship with Hawes and had broken it off.

That break-up “points out another thread of the narrative with domestic violence,” Barber said. “It’s always, ‘Why doesn’t she leave?’ The majority of homicides happen when she has left, because at this point the abuser has lost all control over her.”

Officials have said little about Hawes, a recent transplant to Columbia who met Wilson on an Internet dating site. He apparently lived in Greenville before coming to Columbia in the spring of 2011, renting a house on Woodrow Street in Melrose Heights, another downtown Columbia neighborhood, to be closer to Wilson.

He told people he was dating a tenured USC professor and that she was his fiancee.

Investigations by The State after his arrest and limited police statements paint a picture of Hawes as smart and charming – but a man whose dark side included psychologically abusing, physically threatening and financially exploiting women, one after another.

At least a dozen educated professional women in Florida and South Carolina had complained to police, judges and each other about his aggressive and controlling behavior, or his manipulation of their finances, according to the newspaper’s investigation.

Sworn statements in court documents and police reports obtained by The State allege he physically abused his two wives, three of his girlfriends and two of his three daughters.

Hawes had only one conviction on a violence charge, however: in a 1999 battery/domestic violence case in Hillsborough County, Fla.

Those who knew Hawes told The State that he swept women off their feet, portraying himself as a man of success, sophistication and wealth. He wore nice suits and drove expensive cars.

While dating Wilson, for example, Hawes drove a late-model black Range Rover, a luxury SUV with a price tag in the $70,000 range. Police sources told The State that the SUV actually belonged to a former lover.

Hawes told numerous people he was a financial consultant, or that he sold life insurance, or that he was a consultant for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and designed guns on the side.

But his money often came from loans he didn’t repay from women he asked to help him catch up on child support or get through a rough patch at work, court documents and interviews revealed.

He was not registered with the state Securities Division as a broker-dealer or investment adviser, the S.C. attorney general’s office has said. “Financial consultant” is a general term with no specific legal meaning.

Two former girlfriends – even his own mother – were intimidated by the guns he made a point of showing, according to affidavits reviewed by The State and an interview with one South Carolina woman who said the guns she saw had silencers attached.

A police search of Hawes’ Woodrow Street rental house turned up one Glock .45-caliber handgun, a Ruger .22-caliber handgun, two silencers, a variety of magazines for the weapons and a satellite telephone, according to a copy of search warrants for the house obtained by The State last week. Also found in the house: a large cache of prescription drug bottles for amphetamines and other “uppers,” several more guns and thousands of bullets of various sizes, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Wilson’s friends told The State she had been trying to end her relationship with Hawes – and was getting increasingly worried about her safety.

“It was a time when she was trying to create barriers with him and not invite him into her home,” said one friend, fellow professor Rebecca Leigh.

Wilson’s worries may have been triggered or intensified by an email she received in the weeks before her death from a woman who knew of Hawes’ past. The email warned Wilson that Hawes spelled trouble for women and that she should stay away from him, sources familiar with the police investigation told The State after her death.

Plenty of evidence, questions

Hawes’ upcoming trial likely will last at least a week. It is not known whether Hawes will testify.

It also remains to be seen exactly how much information about Hawes’ guns or past activities with other women will be heard by the jury. Judges in criminal trials usually restrict prosecutors’ evidence to that which proves the question at hand: Did Hawes stab Wilson to death during the early-morning hours of Aug. 28, 2011?

There appears to be plenty of evidence.

According to the search warrant, police seized a bloody pair of blue jeans at Hawes’ rental house on Woodrow Street.

The search warrant also said Hawes was seen leaving Wilson’s Monroe Street house around 8:15 a.m. Aug. 28. At the time, he was not wearing a shirt and “appeared to be a bit disoriented in his appearance,” the search warrant said.

Moreover, after Wilson’s death, Hawes returned to his Woodrow Street house, where he called a female friend and told her what he had done, a city police officer testified at Hawes’ bond hearing in early September 2011. That friend apparently called police, who then went to Wilson’s house.

Wilson’s body was found late morning that same day, in a front room of her home.

Hawes was arrested and invoked his right not to speak to police.

Police also said Hawes may have tried to fake a suicide attempt. At some point after Wilson’s death, he cut his wrists “with superficial wounds in order to get out of the apartment and justify the blood on his pants,” Columbia police Sgt. William Pegram testified during the bond hearing.

After hearing that officer’s testimony, Judge Casey Manning denied bond for Hawes, calling him a danger to the community.

Top legal teams represent both prosecution and defense.

For the 5th Circuit solicitor’s office, assistant prosecutors Dolly Garfield, Foster Mathews and Luck Campbell will handle the case.

For the 5th Circuit public defender’s office, Doug Strickler and Fielding Pringle – the two top attorneys in that office – will represent Hawes.

Hawes might have been tried sooner, but the 5th Circuit in Richland County has an exceptionally crowded trial docket, Solicitor Dan Johnson said. Currently, his 36-lawyer office has some 80 pending murder cases – which are often time-consuming to prepare, he said – along with more than 8,000 other cases.

“We get in over 120 cases a week,” Johnson said. “There’s no grass growing under our feet.”

Questions that testimony in the trial may answer:

A final question has to do with police actions.

About 2:30 a.m. Aug. 28, the day of Wilson’s death, city police were called to Wilson’s house by a neighbor who heard a violent argument.

Police knocked on the door of the darkened home, but left after no one answered.

At the time, police said later, Hawes was inside with Wilson.

Wilson’s friends have asked: Could she have been saved if police had gone inside?

Reach Monk at (803) 771-8344. Reach Hinshaw at (803) 771-8641.

This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 8:19 PM with the headline "Accused killer goes to trial in death of popular USC professor."