Pausing for a moment before handing down a life sentence without parole on Friday, Anoka County Judge Jenny Walker Jasper looked at Elizabeth Hawes and said she had "never seen a situation that approaches this one" in her 23 years as a judge and lawyer.
Last week, Hawes, 45, was convicted for her role in the death of her brother Edwin Hawes, 46, who authorities say was beaten, shot with a crossbow and run over with a car at his Andover home in October 2008. Elizabeth Hawes drove a pickup truck carrying Edwin's body to a family farm 200 miles away, where her younger brother, Andrew, allegedly burned it in a fire pit.
The judge referred to Hawes' testimony in which she described the scenario as "being in a Coen brothers movie." The judge said that those movies are often violent, and that Edwin's death had "real people involved in a violent, violent death and burning of remains."
"I wish it was a movie," Walker Jasper said.
When asked if she had anything to say, Hawes said, "I loved my brother. I did not kill my brother Ed."
With one son dead and her daughter sentenced to prison for life, Dee Hawes, the siblings' mother, had tears in her eyes as she left the courtroom. Her third child, Andrew, 37, is scheduled to stand trial in the spring, followed by the trial of his fiancée, Kristina Dorniden, 30, who also has been charged in the case.
Prosecutors argued that a rupture had occurred among the three siblings by 2007, with Elizabeth and Andrew believing that Edwin had stolen money from a family business and bank accounts belonging to his mother and grandmother.
During her trial, Elizabeth said that she learned of Edwin's death only after Andrew told her and that she was stunned. The defense also described a warm and caring relationship between Elizabeth and Edwin dating to childhood.
