The Region - News from Sept. 14, 1987

The sister of convicted double-murderer James Hawkins Jr. has been acquitted of charges that she committed perjury at her brother’s 1985 manslaughter trial. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Cynthia Hawkins, 28, daughter of prominent Watts businessman James Hawkins Sr., not guilty of two counts of felony perjury. Prosecutors had accused her of lying at her brother’s trial in an attempt to discredit a key prosecution witness. James Hawkins was convicted in August of that year of voluntary manslaughter in the shotgun slaying of reputed street gang member Anttwon Thomas, and was later sentenced to 28 years in state prison. He later was convicted of the execution-style murders of two reputed drug dealers and faces a penalty trial in which jurors could recommend the death sentence.