grandmother, died after receiving a silicone injection. a beauty treatment gone terribly wrong. accused of being the silicone pumpers, mark hawkins and donnie hendrix, were arrested and charged with third degree murder. more than two years after her death, defense attorneys were about to deliver their most withering attack against cory williams, the state s star witness, who testified he actually saw mark hawkins inject silicone into vera lawrence. cookie? cookie? ms. williams is fine. is it cookie? do you go by cookie? ms. williams is fine. what do you do for a living? hair, makeup. you re not a convicted prostitute? no. do you have sex with men for money? is that funny? i knew that i had a problem with cory williams, but i knew that cory williams was a convicted felon. did you cut a deal with the prosecutor that you would be on probation if you came into the courtroom and said this man and this woman injected vera lawrence in your apartment that night?
53-year-old vera lawrence died as a result of industrial-grade silicone injections. the subsequent murder trial had quickly turned into a spectacle. one trial with two defendants and a separate jury for each. stories told by silicone-pumped, transgender men with exaggerated feminine figures. it was an unusual atmosphere but the prosecution seemed to have built a solid case. now it was the defense s turn. something smells rotten in denmark. everything is not as it appears. in the trial of mark hawkins and donnie hendrix, a lot of things weren t as they appeared. not the least of it, the defendants themselves. a couple for 15 years, both men. but one, donnie hendrix, living as a woman. she s not an individual who s gender confused. the way she s described it, she s always known she was just in the wrong physical form. hendrix public defender decided to present his client as a woman.
the courtroom pointing fingers at my client. i can t make any apologies for coming across in a way where i am defending my client. donnie hendrix attorney followed up with a much gentler line of questioning. good afternoon, eleanor taylor. how are you? i m fine, how are you? good. as the two attorneys tag-teamed the witnesses it had the look of a classic good cop/bad cop interrogation. how many names do you have? eleanor. eleanor, rodney. thunder? numerous names. how many identities do you have? one. which who showed up in this courtroom today? eleanor. you and hawkins primary defense lawyer have very different courtroom styles. i don t think a single style of presentation as a defense attorney works in all cases. it may have worked to my advantage in this case, because eric was so attacking. the defense tried to paint the witnesses as unreliable. but what about the mountain of physical evidence found at hawkins and hendrix home that suggested the
hendrix did pump vera lawrence, they just couldn t go the extra mile and say that that was the injection that killed her. three or four of our jurors, including myself, think donnie hendrix is guilty. including myself, think donnie hendrix is guilty. the law didn t ask us what we think. the law asks us what s been proven to us. when the verdicts were read, mark hawkins sat silently, but one of the jurors who convicted him started having terrible misgivings that she voted the wrong way. did you feel you were confused about it or what s the issue? i never thought he was guilty of third-degree murder. i agreed because we had to read the law, and i had to follow the law i was given. outside of the courtroom, hawkins juror marlene brana told defense attorneys she was confused during deliberations and didn t mean to vote guilty. suddenly the verdict seemed in doubt. to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? i do. in an unusual hearing a few weeks later, the
not rude back. they eventually dished it out which i was glad they did. do you have sex with men for money? is that funny? like i ve told you, in the past, when you and your wife have sex, do you give her money? do you buy her nice things? i m asking the questions here, cookie. the jurors had no trouble accepting the story these controversial witnesses were telling. hawkins and hendrix had a long history as silicone pumpers, and that made it easier for the jury to believe cory williams damaging testimony about the night vera lawrence died. we know that donnie and mark were there that evening. and they weren t there to just see cory s new apartment. they were there to do business. marcos. but what about cory williams admission that vera lawrence may have been injected by the mysterious marcos just hours before she died. show of hands question. how many of you believe that