2 Friends Found Guilty of Killing Retired Teacher

Two friends, a promising football star and a gang member, each face life in prison after their convictions Tuesday for killing a retired schoolteacher in a robbery that netted $20.

Ollie Wayne Hawkins Jr., 16, and Joe Patrick Gaines, 17, were found guilty of killing Kathryn Dawson in her Compton home last year.

Hawkins testified that he walked with his boyhood friend to the victim’s house, carrying the gun that Gaines used. But he denied any further involvement.

“Now Ollie is going to go away for the rest of his life--all because of Patrick Gaines,” Hawkins’ attorney, Marvin L. Part, said outside the courtroom. “[Gaines] not only took Kathryn Dawson’s life, but Ollie’s life as well.”

Part said his client, who sat with his palms on his lap and mouth open, struggled to keep from crying as the court clerk read the verdict. “I feel heartsick,” Part said. “I couldn’t feel worse.”

He said he was disappointed when the jury quickly returned from deliberations.

Dawson’s survivors were in court in force, many of them wearing T-shirts bearing her image and the airbrushed words, “I Love You Moma.”

“It was good to see them sink down and feel the way we felt the day we found out she was dead,” said Dawson’s daughter, Yolanda Spooney.

An Arkansas native, Dawson, 68, was described by friends and relatives as a well-liked veteran of 40 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The mother of six had spent most of her teaching career in Watts. During that time she lived and raised her children in the same Compton home.

“My mother was loved by everyone: by the neighbors, her students, her family,” daughter Debra Hinshaw had said. “She was as strong as a rock.”

Separate juries returned the verdicts after deliberating about five hours.

Both teenagers face 25 years to life or life in prison without the possibility of parole and will be sentenced in June.

During the five-day trial, Hawkins was described as a model student and standout athlete. Dominguez High School football coach Keith Donaldson testified that he was surprised that Hawkins had anything to do with a crime. Hawkins took the stand and said he agreed to hold Gaines’ loaded gun but did not know that someone would die that day.

He said that last July 21, the two teenagers walked down their street to Dawson’s house. Hawkins did not know the victim, but Gaines did.

Hawkins testified that he watched his friend force the woman to lie down with a pillow over her head and then shoot her once in the head.

The two juries listened to testimony together but were separated during opening and closing statements.

Spooney held back tears as she looked at Dawson’s 7-month-old great-granddaughter, Essence Siler, and said, “She never got to meet her.”