Former Watts Hero Guilty of 2 Murders, Jurors Decide

James Hawkins Jr., once celebrated with his Watts grocer father for their running battle against street gang members, was convicted by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury Thursday of first-degree murder and robbery in the deaths of two reputed drug dealers.

The 42-year-old ex-convict, already sentenced to 28 years in prison for manslaughter in the slaying of a young gang member, sat without expression as jurors also found special circumstances --a fact that could mean the death penalty.

Judge Marsha N. Revel directed jurors to return to court Sept. 8, when they will be told of Hawkins’ prior convictions--including one for armed robbery and another for bank robbery--and will be asked to recommend a penalty. .

In the meantime, Revel ordered the jury not to discuss the case or read about it.

2 Special Circumstances

Hawkins was found guilty of the execution-style slayings and robbery of alleged narcotics dealers Roger Grant and Larry Turner on June 18, 1984. Both were shot several times. Turner’s body was found bound and gagged at his South Los Angeles home. Grant’s was found in a Fontana road.

Prosecutors contended that the murders were committed by Hawkins and co-defendant Marshall Bridges, 29, a convicted murderer who was on parole from prison, for money and narcotics. Bridges has not yet gone to trial.

At the time, Hawkins was free on bail after being charged with the September, 1983, killing of Anttwon Thomas, 19, a street gang member he claimed was assaulting a woman and her five children.

The jury found that there were special circumstances because there was more than one murder and they were committed during a robbery.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Harvey Giss, who with Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark prosecuted Hawkins for the murders of Grant and Turner, called the nine-month trial “one of the most complicated cases you can imagine.” The prosecution alone, he noted, called more than 50 witnesses. “It was arduous,” he said. “It was incredibly complex.”

The verdict came after four weeks of deliberation, during which at least three jurors were replaced because of various allegations, including one that the case had been discussed outside the courtroom.

Defense attorneys Barry Levin and Richard Ross had no comment after the verdict.

Hawkins watched solemnly as the jurors were polled individually, then he asked the judge to dismiss the case on grounds that due process had been violated.

Revel noted that she had already denied such a motion once.

With a glance and a faint smile at two relatives sitting beyond bullet-proof glass in the spectator section, the defendant was led from the courtroom.

Manslaughter Conviction

Hawkins had--with his father and others in his family--been hailed as a hero at first because of purported vengeance assaults on the Hawkins grocery store by street gang friends of Thomas. Subsequently, however, the younger Hawkins was convicted of manslaughter for killing Thomas and was sentenced to prison.

He escaped from the Criminal Courts Building in the Los Angeles Civic Center on Nov. 27, 1985, several weeks after that conviction and just before he was to go to trial in the Turner and Grant killings. Despite pleas from his father and other family members, he declined to resurface voluntarily and was captured by Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies in February, 1986.

Police said a .44-caliber pistol taken from Hawkins in the Northern California arrest had been used to kill Grant. The gun was also matched to bullets found in the home of Turner.

Hawkins’ latest trial took place under tight security. In addition to the bullet-proof glass that separated him from spectators, several extra bailiffs were on hand.

Hawkins still faces charges in Contra Costa County as the result of a car chase and gunfight with a deputy sheriff there at the time of his capture.