MURDER TRIAL TO GET UNDERWAY

The trial late this month of a woman accused of com­mit­ting a mur­der almost 10 years ago now appears likely.

46 year old Judith Hawkey of Oak­wood is fac­ing charges of aggra­vated mur­der; four counts of endan­ger­ing chil­dren; and insur­ance fraud.

Hawkey is accused of mak­ing her then 10-year-old step­son shoot and kill her hus­band Robert, the boy’s father — in 2003 at their home. The shoot­ing was claimed to be acci­den­tal at the time, but new evi­dence sur­faced that caused author­i­ties to charge Hawkey with the crime.

Pros­e­cu­tors say she also “tor­tured or cru­elly abused” the child over sev­eral years and col­lected life insur­ance pro­ceeds due to her husband’s death.

Hawkey is being held in the Cor­rec­tions Cen­ter of North­west Ohio on a $3 mil­lion cash bond, and is now sched­uled to stand trial in Defi­ance County Com­mon Pleas Court on Oct. 28.

If con­victed, Hawkey could be sen­tenced to life in prison.