(WDHN) — MacArthur Mike Hawkins is one of five suspects charged with capital murder, first-degree kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse in the deaths of Damion Bell and Shauna Terry.
A couple went missing from the Adams Inn Motel on July 8th but police didn’t get involved until three days later and got information from someone who knew details about the murder over two weeks later.
That information led investigators to Sheena Thurman, David Bastian, Joshua Parks, Davante Williams, and MacArthur Hawkins who was on the run until April of this year.
The state laid out their case Friday morning believing Hawkins was the main guy in the alleged murder.
They say he and Williams went to the motel the couple were staying in to hold them at gunpoint and eventually kidnapped them to a home on Dutch Street – all over a gun that was allegedly stolen by Bell from Williams along with drugs.
Investigators believe Bell was murdered at the home on Dutch Street and was taken to Florida with his girlfriend where she was then killed on one of the other suspects Thurman’s property — both of them being buried there.
At the home on Dutch Street, investigators could smell a strong sense of cleaning materials as they believe two of the suspects who were living there were trying to clean up the mess. In Florida, on Thurman’s property, they found their bodies along with an excavator and a hammer that was used to assault bell and clothes that were burned.
Investigators say Hawkins was present at both murder scenes.
But Hawkins’s defense team argued that there was no video evidence of him at the hotel that week, no physical evidence from the Dutch street scene or the scene in Florida, and they didn’t search his electronics.
Hawkins is also not facing charges in Florida.
His defense was also fighting to get him a bond of $150,000 dollars citing how he has two small daughters, no history with felonies, and he’s been matched as a kidney donor for his father who is in need of one.
The state argued how he’s a danger to the community by holding a gun in someone’s face, if he was to commit a crime again he would try to cover it up and run, and how there is no documentation of being a matched donor.
The judge denied the bond but could reconsider if they received documentation that could save his father’s life.
The grand jury already returned an indictment.
Read More: Judge denies bond for suspect in July 2022 double murder | WDHN