State v. Hawkins

Neely, Justice:

Appellant, William Hawkins, was convicted in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County of first-degree murder. The jury found him guilty of bludgeoning a twenty-year-old woman to death with a hand iron. An understanding of appellant’s assignments of error requires a fairly detailed recitation of the facts.

At approximately 9:30 p.m. on 9 September 1978 an off-duty room clerk discovered the battered and dead body of the victim in a vacant room on the third floor of the Worthy Hotel in Charleston. Responding to the clerk’s call, Police Officers Roy Bailey and Howard Haynes arrived to…