After eight years of haggling and running the gamut of a legal battle with the Washington County District Attorney’s Office, Howard Hawk Willis will, at last, face a jury of his peers. He allegedly murdered the Walker County, Ga. duo of Adam Chrismer, then 17, and his young wife Samantha Leming Chrismer, only 16 at the time of her death.
Willis will also face the jury in the role of defense attorney. Judge Lynn Brown, before stepping down as the judge in this case, ruled that Willis must act in his own behalf after a total of 10 attorneys had either been let go by Willis or they themselves requested to withdraw for various reasons.
The case ended up in the Washington County DA’s office after Willis was originally arrested on an unrelated federal warrant out of New York state on October 11, 2002.
He was held for questioning in connection with the homicide of the then unidentified Chrismer. That same day fishermen found a human head in the Watauga River/Boone Lake at Winged Deer Park in Washington County. Over the next two days, Willis’ ex-wife Wilma Gadd, visited him in jail wearing a wire. She obtained a tape of Willis admitting to killing two teenagers.
On October 16 two bodies were found inside Rubbermaid storage containers at a Johnson City storage locker. They were identified as young Chrismer and his wife. Willis’ mother, Emma “Betty” Willis, was charged with two counts of abuse of a corpse, accessory after the fact and attempting to tamper with evidence. His aunt, Marie Holmes, was also charged with attempting to tamper with evidence.
On January 1, 2003 Ms. Gadd told investigators that Willis had confided in her the location of the chainsaw he had used to cut-up Adam Chrismer. On January 3 Bradley County officers find the saw abandoned along I-75.
Later, in August of 2002, Washington County prosecutors filed their intent to seek the death penalty. Attorney Stacy Street was appointed to assist Jim Bowman in representing Willis. In December Judge Lynn Brown ruled that Willis’ taped confessions to his ex-wife will be admissible at trial, as well as issuing a gag order for attorneys and law enforcement personnel assigned to the case.
In 2004, on November 16, Judge Brown set an April 2005 date to go to trial. Just one month prior to the trial date Willis asked the judge to remove Bowman and Street as his legal team. The two attorneys filed a motion to withdraw from the case, but Willis asks Judge Brown to discharge them. The judge requested that the three men meet one more time to see if they could come to an agreement. When this failed, Brown granted the request and canceled the April trial date. He then appointed the First Judicial Public Defenders Office to work on Willis’ case and sets a new trial date of January 30, 2006.
On April 4 and 5 of 2005, Washington County Public Defender Bobby Oaks requested that the judge relieve his office because of a conflict of interest. In March of 2007, Judge Brown resets the trial date to October 29, 2007. On March 19 of 2007, Willis’ new lawyers moved to withdraw from the case. Again, Brown urged the parties to meet. They did, and all motions were withdrawn. On October 19 selection of a jury began but was suspended when the jury pool was depleted.
On April 17 of 2008 attorneys Gene Scott and T. Wood Smith were allowed to withdraw, and in June of that same year, Judge Brown ruled that the defendant must represent himself and attorney Bowman is appointed as Willis’ “elbow counsel.” In May 2009 Willis appealed the judge’s ruling but the Criminal Court of Appeals upheld Brown’s decision.
Earlier this year Willis sued Judge Brown in federal court. At that point the jurist removed himself from the case, and Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood was appointed. He immediately set the trial date for June 14, 2010. The jury was selected in Knoxville on June 1st and 2nd.
(Email Dennis Norwood at sportswriter56@comcast.net. Follow him on Twitter at DennisENorwood.)