Jury Doesn't Reach Verdict In Hawk Cold Case Murder, Sequestered Through Sunday

The jury began deliberation around noon Friday after hearing closing statements in the trial of Billy Hawk, charged with the 1981 cold case murder of Johnny Mack Salyer. No verdict was reached on Saturday. Jurors are still sequestered and will be under care of court officers Saturday night and Sunday. They will start deliberating again Monday at 9 a.m.

“The darkness of the barrel, the darkness of the last 35 years, it’s all lifted,” prosecutor Neal Pinkson said. “It’s all light.”

He said the only reason Salyer never testified against Hawk in court in 1981 was because “he was at the bottom of the lake.”

Prosecutor Lance Pope said there was one man who had the motive, opportunity, incentive, and method—“a method that he threatened witnesses with over the years, to kill somebody and stuff them in a barrel.”

“That man is Billy Hawk,” he said.

“The state wants you to put (Hawk) in prison for the rest of his natural life on a case where they don’t have one piece of evidence,” said defense attorney Bill Speek. “He is, he was, and he remains not guilty.”

During his closing statement, prosecutor Pope said the killing was willful, premeditated, and malicious, and that the primary argument was about identity, not about whether “technical elements are established.” He then spoke to the jury about many of the witnesses who had testified.

Prosecutor Pope said the state never represented former police officer Terry Slaughter “as a clean, pristine witness.”

“Who has better information about criminal acts than, as the defense calls him, a dirty cop?” he asked.

He said Mr. Slaughter told Hawk not to kill Salyer in the city of Chattanooga, or he would arrest him.

Prosecutor Pope then pointed out that Salyer’s body was found in Hamilton County, not the city, where Mr. Slaughter had previously testified to having no jurisdiction. He also said Mr. Slaughter had nothing to gain by lying to the courtroom about Hawk.

Earlier this morning the defense spoke to a final witness, attorney Gary Gerbitz, who was District Attorney for a number of years, including during the 1980s. Attorney Gerbitz testified to the character of Mr. Slaughter, who told the jury on Friday that Hawk wanted to get rid of Salyer.

Attorney Gerbitz called Mr. Slaughter “a perpetual liar” and said he wouldn’t believe him whether or not he was under oath.

“If he told me it was daylight outside, I would wanna go and look,” said the witness.

Prosecutor Neal Pinkston asked if attorney Gerbitz used Mr. Slaughter as a witness in the past.

Attorney Gerbitz said he had, but Mr. Slaughter never affected the prosecution by lying. He said he had no idea the FBI was investigating Mr. Slaughter until he heard that the former police officer had told the FBI attorney Gerbitz was “crooked” and “was on his payroll.”

Prosecutor Pinkston pointed out that “the FBI administered several polygraphs to Mr. Slaughter and he passed them,” a comment Judge Don Poole called “inappropriate” and instructed the jury to disregard.

Attorney Speek said, “This was a different day in age. Everybody was swimming in the sewer, a lot of drugs, a lot of partying. Everybody was doing it.”

Except, he pointed out, for Salyer’s wife, Vicki Salyer.

Attorney Speek said Ms. Salyer was the most credible witness from the state and that she remembered her husband owing thousands of dollars to someone in 1981.

“The defense would have you believe that Vicki Salyer thinks that someone bigger is involved,” said prosecutor Pope. He reminded the jury that in testimony this week, Ms. Salyer had said she thought Hawk committed the murder.

The state also said that C.W. Stephens, a man mentioned multiple times during the trial, was at most looking for Salyer because of a debt.

“Do you murder someone that you’re gonna collect money from? How in the world do you collect your money?” asked prosecutor Pope. He also questioned why Stephens would drive up to Chickamauga Lake to kill someone when he lived in Trenton, Ga.

Attorney Speek pointed out that Hawk lives in Ringgold, Ga. He lamented that Robert Stultz, a witness he said was “the last one to see Billy Hawk alive” was never even questioned.

“We’re literally doing the police work for them,” he said.

Attorney Speek said though the state wants the jury to believe Hawk had an incentive to kill Salyer, there was no evidence that Salyer was ever going to testify in court against Hawk. He said there was evidence, however, “that Mack was behind, that he owed money.”

He told the jury there was not “one eye witness to this crime,” and the state was unable to find even a witness “who saw Billy Hawk in the same area as Johnny Mack Salyer” between the time of the victim’s return to Chattanooga and his body’s discovery.

Prosecutor Pope said witnesses Debra Bales and Wynna Williams “absolutely establish the identity” of Salyer’s murderer.

Ms. Williams, he said, told the jury Hawk “tricked (Salyer), shot him, stuffed him in a barrel.” In previous testimony, Ms. Williams said Hawk broke into her apartment, told her what he and Harold “Moe” Sosebee had done to Salyer, and then threatened her and her son.

On Friday, Mr. Sosebee testified that he and Hawk had nothing to do with Salyer’s murder. He also said the state had offered him “complete immunity” if he testified against Hawk “no matter what level” Mr. Sosebee was involved in the murder.

After the defense called its last witness this morning, the state spoke to rebuttal witness Investigator Mike Mathis from the cold case unit. Investigator Mathis testified that he never offered immunity to Mr. Sosebee in exchange for cooperation. While the jury was out of the room, however, Investigator Mathis did say that he offered to “help” Mr. Sosebee when he spoke to him.

Prosecutor Pope said Debra Braswell, who married Hawk four days after giving her first interview to law enforcement in 1982, was the one who initiated contact with detectives to give a revised statement on Sept. 28, 2015. During the trial, Ms. Braswell told the jury about a 1981 boat ride with Hawk where she saw Mr. Sosebee at a gas station and then saw a barrel in the boat. She also spoke of an abusive incident where Hawk threatened to stuff her inside a barrel.

Attorney Speek recalled testimony from Mr. Sosebee about the kind of car he owned and was driving on the day of the boat ride. He said the type of car Ms. Braswell claimed to see Mr. Sosebee in on that day placed the boat ride no later than March, two months too early to connect the barrel Ms. Braswell saw to the one Salyer’s body was discovered in.

He also told the jury the descriptions of the barrel did not match, since Ms. Braswell testified it was “brown with blue” and no holes, while all other witnesses said it was “black with a white top” and had visible holes.

Attorney Speek claimed the state was “prosecuting Billy Hawk on memories.”

“Time erodes memories,” he said.

He told the jury the state did not want them to hone in on the evidence, but “to hone in on testimony.”

Prosecutor Pinkston said “direct evidence may include testimony,” and all roads led back to Billy
Hawk.