TAMPA – Justin Hawker’s attorney entered a plea of “Not Guilty” at his arraignment on Monday, which was expected following his pretrial detention hearing last week. The defense waived his appearance in court to begin working on his case.
The backstory:
On Sept. 19, the Tampa Police Department discovered the decomposing remains of a woman wrapped in bedding and bound with duct tape.
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The body was located in a vacant lot at 1502 N 39th St.
During their investigation, they found surveillance video that looked at the field where the body was found.
In that video, a driver used a vehicle to dump the body there on Sept. 11. A vehicle matching the video was recovered at 39th St. and 3rd Ave. It was disabled due to a ruined tire. The driver of that video was observed on additional surveillance video to be wearing specific clothing and white sneakers.
The medical examiner’s office was able to identify the victim as Andie Morrell. Her identification was confirmed by the Tampa Police Department through tattoos and fingerprints. Her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest.
The Tampa Police Department connected her to an active missing person case filed by Sidney Innis, who identified himself as Morrell’s roommate.
According to court documents, Innis had told Tampa police that on Sept. 10, Morrell had let him know that she was doing an “out call daddy.” He related to law enforcement that Morrell was an exotic dancer who would do “house visits.”
Innis informed the police that Morrell let him know that she was going to 9431 Polak Dr. She had received photos from a potential client and photos of the cash he intended to pay her for the visit. Innis also told them that he had not heard from her since that day.
The Tampa Police tracked her cell phone to that same address, which came back to be within Hillsborough County’s jurisdiction. They contacted the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to check on that address.
On Sept. 19, HCSO deputies made contact with two people at the Polak Dr. address. One of them, a resident identified as 17-year-old Justin Hawker, allowed the deputies into the home. The court documents relate that they described the home as smelling of bleach and cleaning fluids with a large bleach stain in the center of the carpet of the living room.
A search warrant was later served on the same residence and yielded evidence of blood stains. According to court records, clothing matching the driver of the vehicle that dumped the body was also located in Hawker’s room along with duct tape and carpet repair supplies.
On Sept. 20, the Tampa/Hillsborough 911 Operations center received a call at 8:27 p.m. During the call, a man asked for law enforcement to respond to his home at 9431 Polak Dr. as he had been involved in a homicide. The 911 call operator asked if the caller committed the homicide, and he replied, “Yes maam.” The 911 operator asked the caller later to identify himself, and he said his name is Justin Hawker.
Hawker was arrested and charged with murder and with tampering with physical evidence.
Justin Hawker mugshot. Courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
What we know:
The defense attorney for Hawker reminded the court that her client is a minor. In fact, his criminal case began as a minor until the State Attorney’s Office elevated it to adult charges.
Justin Hawker and his defense attorney
The public defender addressed the court about how the victim was an adult, an adult who knowingly was visiting a minor for sex. The victim’s friend and roommate was also an adult who was party to the information that she was visiting a minor for sex.
However, those facts did not undo the facts of the case that Hawker had called 911 and admitted to being the shooter and that a woman was dead as the result of his actions.
He was ordered held without bond until his trial date.
Justin Hawker court appearance
What we don’t know:
According to court records, the other person present on the date that sheriff’s deputies initially contacted Hawker was identified as his girlfriend.
In further interviews with the sheriff’s office, she related that Hawker had admitted to inviting Morrell over for sex. Her statement to the sheriff’s office was that, according to Hawker, when Morrell arrived, an unknown man armed with a gun was with her and attempted to rob him (Hawker). Hawker retrieved a firearm and fired towards them. It was then that Morrell was struck and killed.
Whether that information is true or not remains to be discovered in the investigation and could possibly not come up again until another arrest or the criminal trial in this case.
According to the court documents, a confidential informant told the sheriff’s office that Hawker is known to have access to firearms and had seen the home being cleaned via facetime with the girlfriend of the defendant.
What’s next:
Following the arraignment, the defense will be seeking discovery materials and witness information from the prosecution. Pretrial and trial dates have not been set yet, and the homicide case is still currently being actively investigated.
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The Source: The story was written based on court testimony from the pretrial detention hearing and the documents for the motion for pretrial detention and criminal report affidavit.