HAWKEY TRIAL TESTIMONY ENDS

Tes­ti­mony in the mur­der trial of 46 year old Judith Hawkey con­cluded Thurs­day after­noon in Defi­ance County Com­mon Pleas Court.

Hawkey is charged with aggra­vated mur­der; four counts of endan­ger­ing chil­dren; and insur­ance fraud in con­nec­tion with the death back in Novem­ber of 2003 of her hus­banc. Her trial began on Oct. 28.

Clos­ing argu­ments will take place today.

The charges against Hawkey allege that she caused her then 10-year-old step­son who is now 20 years old, to shoot and kill her hus­band, the boy’s father, on Nov. 3, 2003, at their home in Mark Cen­ter. Hawkey also allegedly abused the boy phys­i­cally and com­mit­ted insur­ance fraud by col­lect­ing ben­e­fits from her husband’s death.

The defense has argued through­out the trial that the shoot­ing was acci­den­tal, which was the county sher­iff office’s ini­tial rul­ing in 2003.