In the 34-year-old unsolved murder case that recently spotlighted Billy Hawk as the prime suspect, criminal defense attorneys are seeking forensic proof, which does not change with time, to prove Hawk’s innocence.
During Monday’s discovery motion, filed on behalf of the defense to obtain certain evidence, defense attorney Jim Logan requested the victim’s chest X-ray be submitted as evidence for the upcoming Hawk trial. He requested the barrel where the victim’s body was found be issued as evidence, too.
Hawk, 61, was arrested last September after a Cold Case team in the District Attorney’s office resurrected the murder case of Johnny Mack Salyer.
On June 3, 1981, a 55-gallon steel drum was found floating in the Tennessee River near Lakesite. Salyer’s body was inside.
At the time, Salyer and Hawk were co-defendants in a pending cocaine distribution case.
During Monday’s pre-trial hearing attorney Logan said officials exhumed the victim’s body and found a bullet hole in the chest. But the original forensic report allegedly did not show the presence of a bullet.
Because a number of X-rays were taken of the victim after his death, attorney Logan requested the chest X-ray as evidence. According to District Attorney General Neal Pinkston, who created the Cold Case Unit, medical examiners have located every X-ray taken at the time of the murder except the chest X-ray.
The barrel where Salyer’s body was found could not be located either, General Pinkston said.
General Pinkston said the sheriff’s department would have to explain why authorities did not preserve the barrel – a key piece of evidence that could possibly exonerate Hawk of the crime because his DNA was never associated with the barrel, attorney Logan said.
“The government has failed to preserve perhaps the most significant piece of evidence in this case,” he said.
Judge Don Poole granted the request for the chest X-ray and barrel as evidence. He said if they were not available then the state needed to provide an explanation to the defense as to why.
He scheduled another pre-trial hearing for Feb. 22, during which further discussion will take place over what evidence can be used in the jury trial set for April 5.
After the hearing, defense attorney Bill Speek, who is also working this case, said the defense is seeking forensic proof because eyewitness testimonies 34 years after the murder would be unreliable. But forensic proof – like the chest X-ray and barrel – do not change over time.
He said Hawk – who sat before Judge Poole in a red jail suit – has professed his innocence “this entire time.” He said an innocent man was behind bars.