Convicted husband of Debbie Hawk hopes new evidence will help appeal
HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) -- Ten years after Debbie Hawk went missing and was presumed murdered, her ex-husband is now hoping new evidence will exonerate him. Dave Hawk was convicted of killing the Hanford mother back in 2009.
Dave's attorney Mark Coleman and Kings County deputy district attorney Phil Esbenshade stood before a judge in Hanford on Monday and agreed to move forward to do additional tests on Debbie's remains.
"I had the bones," Esbenshade said. "Everything that was found in the field transported to the Department of Justice. I've requested very broad testing, DNA profile testing so I think we can both agree that would be sufficient."
Debbie was killed in June of 2006. Her blood was found in her home and her van that was ditched in Fresno but her body was not found until this year. The evidence, though, was enough for a jury to convict her ex-husband Dave for her murder.
Prosecutors argued he killed Debbie after she realized he had been stealing money from their children's trust funds. Since his 2009 conviction, Dave has been trying to appeal the case. He was waiting for the matter to be heard in a federal appeals courtroom when investigators discovered her remains this past march.
"We're hoping that in these remains there will exist DNA which would point to the actual perpetrator," Coleman said. "That would exonerate dave hawk that's what we're looking for."
Debbie's remains were found by a farm worker in a field off 16th Avenue south of Lemoore. DNA tests confirmed it was her. Now, Coleman said, Dave wants more tests to be done to try and exonerate him as the killer. DNA tests will be performed on all of Debbie's remains, including 10 acrylic fingernails.
"There were some items recovered that if there were DNA it would be the most likely spot DNA would be found," Coleman said.
The Kings County District Attorney's Office believes without a doubt that whatever the tests reveal that Dave killed Debbie. They've already submitted the evidence to the state.
"Sometimes that's contested sometimes it's not," Esbenshade said. "In this case, we've agreed that that's appropriate and we've transported everything that was located up to the department of justice for DNA testing."
If someone else's DNA is discovered on Debbie's remains or if the tests show none of Dave's DNA is present, Coleman said they will file a motion for a new trial.
"Just the location where the remains were found makes it clear that given the timeline from the trial that he couldn't have done this," he said.
Attorneys hope results from the DNA tests will be back by December when both parties are expected to be back in court.
