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November 27, 2009

Man charged with murder of Chickamauga couple must represent himself

The Associated Press Associated Press

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A man who has won repeated delays in his trial for the 2002 dismemberment slayings of a teenage couple in East Tennessee must defend himself in the death penalty case, after the state’s high court denied his application to appeal.

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Howard Hawk Willis’ appeal of a ruling that he forfeited his right to counsel after he repeatedly sued his court-appointed attorneys, forcing one after another to withdraw.

In the July ruling, the state Court of Criminal Appeals at Knoxville wrote that Willis is mentally competent and his acts were a deliberate attempt to delay trial.

“The defendant used the tactic of suing his lawyers or filing complaints against them with the Board of Professional Responsibility as a means of coercing the court into discharging counsel and ... the pattern was for the tactic to be employed as trial dates approached,” the decision states.

Willis’ complaints against his attorneys were found to be without merit and he had been warned that a judge would not continue to appoint new attorneys indefinitely.

In 2007 a judge told a complaining Willis that his tactics were “extremely stupid.” He was going to wind up representing himself, the judge warned, and would then be “much more likely to get the death penalty.”

Willis is charged in the killings of Adam Chrismer, 17, and Samantha Leming, 16, both of Chickamauga, Ga. The boy’s head was found in Boone Lake and his hands were nearby. The girl’s remains were found in a Johnson City rental storage unit.

Investigators have said Willis and the newlyweds were involved in a sex-for-cocaine relationship. Authorities think Willis killed them at his mother’s home after the three traveled to Johnson City in early October 2002.

Willis was arrested soon after the bodies were found, but his trial has been postponed repeatedly.

Willis also is suspected in the killing of his 73-year-old stepfather, Samuel Thomas of Cleveland, whose headless body turned up in the wilderness of Walker County, Ga., about the same time the other bodies were found.

Authorities have said the teens may have known something about the slaying of Thomas.

At the time of the killings, Willis was free on $200,000 bond while he cooperated with federal prosecutors in a cocaine smuggling case in New York. Willis got an eight-year prison sentence on the drug charges in July 2003.

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