Criminal Court Judge Don Poole granted a motion to sequester the jury during the trial of Billy Hawk, 61, charged in a 34-year-old unsolved murder case.
Hawk is charged with murder in the first degree of Johnny Mack Sayler. He was arrested last September after a Cold Case team in the District Attorney’s office resurrected the 1981 case.
On June 3, 1981, Sayler’s body was found inside a 55-gallon steel drum floating in the Tennessee River near Lakesite.
Hawk has maintained his innocence in the murder since his arrest.
In court on Monday, defense attorney Jonathan Turner said that this case “carries life imprisonment” and expressed concern about the jury getting information from outside the courtroom during the trial.
“I think one thing we know for sure is this is a case that’s being covered by the media,” said attorney Turner. “It’s gonna be hard to stay clear of the public perception.”
After granting that the jury be sequestered, Judge Poole ordered that any evidence or witness with “knowledge of the time, place, or location” of the case be turned over to the defense.
“This is the exact kind of case where an innocent man can be convicted. It is amazing not only the amount but the quality of the evidence which the state has lost,” defense attorney Bill Speek said outside the courtroom. “We would argue that this is why it is inherently unfair to try someone 35 years later. Witnesses that could help are deceased. Evidence that would exonerate (Hawk) has been lost.”
The trial is scheduled for begin on May 31.