MEMPHIS – A YOUNG girl who told police her father forced her to help as he cut up her mother’s body with an electric saw said she could only look away when the head fell to the floor.
The girl is the chief witness against James Hawkins, 31, a prison parolee charged with first-degree murder in the death of Charlene Gaither, 28, a longtime companion with whom he had three children.
His trial is scheduled for September and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Police say Ms Gaither was killed in February 2008 at the apartment she shared with Hawkins, their daughter Keyuna Thomas, who then was 12, and two boys, ages 9 and 11.
Keyuna, now 13, told police she saw Hawkins stab her mother in the neck with a knife and then strangle her after she threatened to call police during an argument. The girl told police her father forced her to help as he cut up the body a day after the killing.
A schedule court hearing was postponed to May 22 after defense and prosecution disagreed on whether a statement made by Gaither about disposing of the body was admissible as evidence. He was on parole at the time after serving a sentence for a string of armed robberies.
Hawkins is being held on a US$4 million (S$6 million) bond.
Hawkins reported Ms Gaither missing Feb 12 and her torso was found two days later in rural Mississippi, just south of Memphis. The severed body parts were not found, and the body was identified through DNA analysis.
The girl, now in the custody of her mother’s family, said her younger brothers did not witness the slaying nor see their mother’s body. But, she said, she was forced to help clean up the bloody scene and drag the body to a freezer where it was stored temporarily.
‘I told my dad I didn’t want to do this anymore,’ she told police. ‘He says, ‘You want to die, too?” — AP
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