JONESBOROUGH, Tn. - At one point during Wednesday afternoon’s testimony, the voice of now-deceased Betty Hawk Willis was heard in a recorded telephone conversation with her son, accused double murderer Howard Hawk Willis, saying, “Howard, they took my clothes, they took my, my George Foreman grill, my rotisserie, they took my…” Mr. Willis replied, “What did they take that stuff for?”
“They took everything out of the garage. Your computer and everything.” “Why?” “As evidence. They took…”
Mr. Willis again asks, “Well. What in the damn hell is a George Foreman grill evidence to?”
His mother snapped, “I don’t know Howard, we probably cooked the parts before we got rid of them, OK.”
This was all in response to Mrs. Willis telling her son that a search warrant had been served on her residence at 104 Brentwood Dr.; the location police believe was the scene of both homicides.
This testimony was heard during the direct examination of lead investigator Todd Hull. At the time of the murders, Investigator Hull worked for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. As such, he was also the officer responsible for printing the severed hands of Adam Chrismer. He stated he then got a hit out of Walker County on a missing person. The prints were one and the same.
Willis is on trial, accused of murdering a teen-aged married couple, Adam Chrismer and Samantha Leming Chrismer, both formerly of Chickamauga. He was 17 and she was 16.
Investigator Hull also discovered photographs of Willis, the Chrismers, his own daughter Kelly and her husband.
There were several more recordings that had been made without the defendant’s knowledge from inside the Washington County jail. At one point Willis told his mother to shut up as she begins to talk about “going to the storage…” At this point law enforcement knew they were looking for a storage facility, before eventually finding the one on Buffalo Street that had been rented to Mrs. Willis.
The officer who had originally discovered the unit by its foul smell was recalled to the stand today by the prosecution to tie up a few loose ends from his earlier testimony. Kenny Phillips testified that he had been listening to the live audio when Willis made the statement that he had blown their brains out.
Mr. Phillips said he immediately terminated the session between Willis and his ex-wife, Wilda Gadd, had Mrs. Gadd removed from the room and placed the defendant under arrest. At that point he directed that the accused be placed on a close watch.
He said, “Some might call it a suicide watch but I never have.” This is where the individual is stripped of anything with which they might harm themselves, he stated. This is usually clothing such as their pants, shirt, belt, shoelaces. Normally inmates are given a paper gown with which to cover themselves.
Willis, on cross examination, asked Mr. Phillips if he was related to Sheriff Phillips of Washington County; to which the former investigator told him no.
The defendant then asked, “You were attempting an interrogation technique on me known as the “2 Step,” weren’t you?” Mr. Phillips replied, “I’m not aware of what you are talking about.”
The next witness for the prosecution was brought before the jury to nail down even more forensic evidence to support their allegations and that Willis murdered the teens.
“I can say without a doubt that the fingerprints discovered on the blue used to cover the storage bins where the bodies were found is that of Howard Hawk Willis,” stated Oakley McKinney. Mr. McKinney was a TBI technician from 1972 until his retirement in 2008. Since leaving the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, he has attended seminars and training to keep his certification as a certified latent print examiner with the International Identification Organization current.
Mr. McKinney had matched the accused’s right thumb print to one on the tarp utilizing a method that involved the heating of superglue around the object in a closed container. He told the jury he matched the prints on 20 different points of the prints. Showing these points to the jury on a blown-up photo projected on the wall behind him, he took the jury through a layman’s tour of latent print processes.
Mr. McKinney was also able to match the prints of the Chrismers using their driver’s licenses to do so. Again, he testified with full certainty that the prints matched the identity of the deceased pair.
On cross examination, Mr. McKinney did admit that he had found no prints on three cartridges found at the residence at 104 Brentwood, nor did he find prints on a pistol that had been recovered in a shed adjacent to that address.
Mr. McKinney stated that all of his work is always verified by another latent print examiner to ensure a 100-percent match. The retired agent had been admitted as an expert witness without any objection by the defendant.
Willis appeared to be more and more weary as the day went on and it was widely reported that he had not slept well the night before. Taking that into consideration, Judge Blackwood adjourned court somewhat early, around 4:45 p.m. He did instruct the jury to be ready to go to work a half hour earlier Thursday morning, at 8:30 rather the usual 9 o’clock.
(You can email Dennis Norwood at sportswriter56@comcast.net or follow him on Twitter at DennisENorwood. Listen for his live updates on Fred the Show on WGOW Talk Radio 102.3.)