Former lovers of Hawes will not be allowed to testify about threats

A Richland County jury will not hear from two former lovers who say murder defendant Hank Hawes threatened them in 2010, months before he stabbed USC professor Jennifer Wilson to death.

Judge J.C. Nicholson Jr. heard testimony, before the jury arrived, from the two Tuesday and ruled it “too remote” from Wilson’s death.

The decision blemished the prosecution’s case against Hawes in the August 2011 slaying of Wilson, a 36-year-old educator who engaged in a stormy romantic relationship with him. Lawyers sought to show the five-woman, seven-man jury that Hawes, 40, had a history of threatening women with weapons.

Christine Dahlheimer of Greenville was prepared to offer testimony that a couple of months into her relationship with Hawes, in the fall of 2010, he pulled a knife on her. The two were in an argument while cooking and he picked up a knife from the counter. “He pointed it right at my throat,” she said.

Dahlheimer said Hawes backed her up against the counter and, when the dogs started barking “frantically,” he backed away and played it off as a joke. She also said that “a lot of times” when talking, Hawes would place his thumb in the depression at the base of her throat.

Dahlheimer also said: “He was kind of controlling, took me to work and stayed there.”

She testified she was in a relationship with Hawes in 2010, between August and December.

Wilson began her relationship with Hawes about two months later, in February 2011, according to testimony in the trial that began Oct. 6.

Under cross examination by defense attorney Megan Eigenbrot, Dahlheimer said she had never reported Hawes’ actions to police because at the time she didn’t realize she should.

In December 2010, Dahlheimer added, Hawes pulled a gun on her when the two were pulling out of a driveway.

In another case, Stacy Newsom said “there were several instances” when she felt threatened by Hawes.

She was in a two-year relationship with him that only ended after she had him evicted from her Simpsonville home, she said. The three-month eviction process produced some “intense fights.”

She said Hawes spit on her, acted like he was going to head-butt her and wrapped his arms around her from behind to pull her to the floor. Hawes warned her that if she went to police, he would turn it around on her, she said.

“The words that I recall are, ‘You will be the one to go to jail,’” she said. “I felt something would be said or done to make it look like it was my fault.”

Newsom also said throughout her relationship with Hawes, she saw weapons, including knives.

Defense lawyer Fielding Pringle emphasized that the incidents had nothing to do with Wilson. The judge’s decision to forego the testimony seemed to revolve around that point.

Prosecutor Luck Campbell argued there was legal precedent for the testimony that Hawes threatened to turn Newsom’s allegations of abuse against her if she went to police. She said it would show a pattern in that Hawes turned Wilson’s murder into a claim of self-defense.

A day earlier, Hawes testified that it was Wilson who first wielded a knife when he went to her home to break off their relationship, and that he had to defend himself.

“We’re talking about what he would do if someone called the police,” Campbell said.

Pringle argued: “It’s a different victim, has absolutely nothing to do with this case.”

The two women cited opposing case law, and the judge found the incidents too far removed from the Wilson case for the jury to hear.

Before it was all over, though, Campbell managed to get both Hawes and Newsom on the stand for brief – and contradictory – comments about their conversation.

In other testimony Tuesday, with the jury present:

Testimony should conclude Wednesday with two witnesses for the defense.

This story was originally published October 14, 2014 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Former lovers of Hawes will not be allowed to testify about threats."