Thomas William Hawkins

Thomas William Hawkins Jr. (born December 31, 1963) is an American murderer and possible serial killer. Originally convicted as a juvenile for the 1980 murder of his girlfriend, Hawkins served 6 years out of a 15 year sentence before being released on parole – in 1989, he raped and murdered his 14-year-old niece in Stowe, Pennsylvania, leading to him being charged, convicted, and sentenced to death for that crime.

Hawkins remains on the state's death row for the latter murder, and is considered a suspect in the disappearance of a female acquaintance.

Murder of Karen Stubbs On August 3, 1980, the body of 15-year-old Karen L. Stubbs was found in a second-floor bedroom inside a dormitory of Kimbrough Hall, a part of the Pine Forge Academy located in Berks County, Pennsylvania. According to Pennsylvania State Trooper Edwin McFarland, there were indications that Stubbs had been strangled to death. He was charged with criminal homicide and held at the Berks County Jail, with $100,000 bail. According to his account, Hawkins put his arm around Stubbs' neck to prevent her from leaving a room, causing her to fall down and stop breathing. An autopsy concluded that she had been raped, stabbed with a meat fork and strangled with a telephone cord, but at the time of discovery, there were no leads as to who might have been responsible. Shortly prior to her death, Thomas had moved to the town to escape escalating violent crime and drug abuse in her native Philadelphia, and was set to graduate from the Pine Forge Elementary School. The news of her murder shocked the local community, leading to some of her schoolmates going to counseling to deal with the trauma. Detectives were led to him due to his previous conviction and the location of a fingerprint at the crime scene that was identified as belonging to Hawkins. While searching through his home, officers located numerous detectives' magazines depicting violent strangulations that had been highlighted or underlined. Similarly, his attorney, Sharon Brown, also demanded that the charges against her client be dismissed on the grounds that the only currently available evidence against him was the fingerprints found on the trash bag. This request was denied by Judge Charles Dasch, who denied bail and ordered that Hawkins would stand trial for the murder.

First trial During the trial, the prosecution summoned Hawkins' family members to testify, despite the fact that all of them steadfastly maintained their belief that he was innocent after talking with him. When asked about why he had washed a pair of pants he had worn on the day of the murder, Hawkins claimed it was because his job at the time had a strict dress code and they had a tear in the crotch region. Supposedly, on the day of the murder, he was anxious to do his laundry because he was late for work, due to which he washed the pants and underwear he was wearing. The prosecutors contended that the real reason why Hawkins washed them was to get rid of evidence, pointing out the fact threads found at the crime scene were a match to the pants. On the other hand, Hawkins' family members protested the verdict and claimed that he had been framed by investigators. This sentiment was shared by his lawyer Sharon Brown, who claimed that she was prevented from bringing several crucial witnesses that could point to an unnamed man who supposedly was pressuring Thomas for sex shortly prior to her murder. Brown later stated that she would contact the NAACP and Jesse Jackson to investigate the trial proceedings, accusing the police of attempting to close the case instead of seeking actual justice for the victim. Hawkins himself reportedly showed no reaction to the verdict, and spent his time tapping his fingers on a desk while listening to the verdict. Writing for the court majority, Judge Nicholas P. Papadakos argued that the two murders were very different and did not show any distinct pattern, in addition to stating that the Stubbs murder had been "accidental". Judge Frank J. Montemuro Jr. wrote a dissenting opinion on the ruling pointing that there were too many coincindences in the two murders for them to be completely unrelated, which was supported by Judges Robert N. C. Nix Jr. and Ralph Cappy. The prosecutor, Bruce Castor, presented many pieces of evidence that pointed towards Hawkins' guilt – saliva samples, fingerprints and clothing fibers found on the pants Hawkins had been wearing – and presented testimony from FBI agents and former cellmates of Hawkins that implicated him in the murder. In it, Bing said that the DNA found from nail clippings and bodily fluids at the crime scene were not from Hawkins or Thomas, but also admitted that the testing on the remainder of the items was inconclusive.

Current status In January 1998, Governor Tom Ridge signed two death warrants – one for hired gunman Darrick Hall and the other for Hawkins, scheduling their execution dates to be on January 29 and February 3, respectively. Hawkins' execution was later stayed by the state's Supreme Court.

In May of that year, Governor Ridge signed three new death warrants, again including Hall and Hawkins, as well as another murderer named Jose Uderra. Hawkins' execution was scheduled for June 16, but was never carried out.

As of August 2026, Hawkins remains on the state's death row.

Dawn Mozino case On May 22, 1989, 24-year-old Dawn Marie Mozino, a nurse with mild intellectual impairments, left her workplace at the Bryn Mawr Hospital while en route to visit her boyfriend in Strafford. When she failed to return home the following day, her father reported her missing to the police, as this was considered out of character for her.

In the following days, volunteer firefighters, members of the Town Watch and even local psychics offered to search the area around Strafford for any sign of Dawn. From around that time, her mother suspected that Dawn might have been abducted by someone, prompting her to contact a congresswoman situated in Ridgewood, New Jersey to push for federal legislation concerning missing persons.

Mozino's mother, Diane, later attended Hawkins' trial for the murder of Andrea Thomas, jotting down any detail about him and his crimes in an attempt to find any connection to her daughter's case.

In June 2001, a recently-convicted murderer named Gerald Bennett wrote a letter to the Delaware County authorities admitting that he had killed Mozino. While his story was initially deemed as credible, interviews with detectives later determined that his claims were way too vague and provided no new information that would indicate that he was responsible – as a result, his confession was deemed bogus, with Attorney Bruce Castor again reiterating that Hawkins remained the prime suspect.