Billy Hawk when he was a Baylor student
Attorney Jim Logan said Friday he is adamant that Billy Hawk did not commit the 1981 murder of Johhny Mack Salyer.
Hawk, 61, made his first court appearance before Judge Don Poole in the 34-year-old case that was resurrected by a Cold Case team in the District Attorney's Office.
Judge Poole set a status hearing date of Nov. 3.
On Wednesday, June 3, 1981, a locked steel drum containing the victim's body was pulled from the Tennessee River near Lakesite.
At the time, Salyer and Hawk were co-defendants in a pending cocaine distribution case.
Attorney Logan, who agreed to represent the defendant earlier this week, said that he will be working diligently to understand the state’s basis for the allegations, more than three decades after the crime.
He said, “The government has been at this 34 years, and I just started.”
He also said that this is by far the oldest cold case he has worked on since previous cases have typically been only 10-15 years.
There are some complications in a case as old as this and attorney Logan said that some witnesses favorable to his client may have either passed away or simply cannot be found.
According to attorney Logan, his client, who is under a $500,000 bond, is not a flight risk.
He said, “Billy Hawk has nowhere to go, and he wouldn’t go anywhere. He stands ready to respond to these charges.”
Counsel is reserving the right to request a bond reduction in the future.
As far as his defense is concerned, attorney Logan said the defense is faced with a “mountain of information” and has a substantial amount of work ahead.
Hawk, when he was a student at Baylor School, was described as "an unpredictable mixture of hell, fuel and muscles, which is very hard to control when properly mixed."
Billy Hawk’s younger brother, Bobby, and his wife, Bay, were in the news in earlier years when they left town in a dispute over visitation of their children by the Hawk grandparents. After the death of the elder Hawk, Bobby and Bay returned and reconciled with the Hawk grandmother.
The Hawks long operated Holiday Bowl in Brainerd.