The Region : Man Convicted in Freeway Slaying

An air-conditioner installer was convicted of second-degree murder for shooting at a van during a dispute on the Riverside Freeway last August that left one woman dead and another wounded. A Riverside Superior Court jury returned the verdict against Harold Harvey Hawks, 27, of Pomona, after four days of deliberation. “I’m happy with the verdict. I think the jury did a good job,” said Michael H. Dwyer of Woodcrest, whose wife, Patricia, 45, Corona’s first policewoman, was killed. Hawks acknowledged firing the gun at the van, but said he never intended to kill anyone. Jury forewoman Joycee Beck said that Dwyer, who was driving the van, contributed to his wife’s death. She criticized him for tossing an aluminum can out the van window as he passed Hawks’ car and for cutting Hawks off. “The jurors were saying this is where two hotheads met on the freeway and neither one of them would give in,” Beck said. Hawks faces a maximum term of 17 years to life when sentenced June 2.