Hawkins Found Guilty of Voluntary Manslaughter

James Hawkins Jr. was convicted of voluntary manslaughter today in the 1983 shotgun slaying of a 19-year-old gang member whose death triggered a widely publicized retaliatory gang attack on the Hawkins’ family home and long-established grocery store in Watts.

Hawkins, 41, who had been prosecuted for second-degree murder, could face up to 33 years in prison when he is sentenced by Superior Court Judge Ronald S. W. Lew for the killing of Anttwon Thomas.

Noting that 18 gang members were eventually convicted of terrorizing the Hawkins family with guns and Molotov cocktails, Deputy Dist. Atty. Harvey Giss called today’s verdict an example of “even-handed justice.”

But Hawkins family members expressed anger and shock.

“I don’t understand it,” said Hawkins’ visibly shaken father, James Hawkins Sr., who testified on his son’s behalf during the two-month trial. “I don’t consider this justice.”

Thomas’ death outside the family’s grocery store in September, 1983, sparked two nights of violent reprisals by gang members against the family. And the embattled Hawkins clan drew the initial backing of Mayor Tom Bradley and other public and police officials.

Several months after the original incident, however, the younger Hawkins was charged with murder after a witness to the killing appeared at a court hearing in a separate case involving the gang members.