Serial rapist identified through genetic genealogy DNA testing gets 4 life sentences
A 75-year-old serial rapist who was identified more than 30 years after his crimes through genealogy DNA testing was sentenced to four life sentences on Friday, announced Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot.
David Thomas Hawkins pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual assaults and three counts of aggravated rape in a series of attacks between 1980 and 1985.
Hawkins was arrested in August 2020 after he was identified through forensic genetic genealogy analysis — the same type of DNA testing used to identify the Golden State Killer.
After his arrest, Hawkins confessed to authorities that he was responsible for at least 30 rapes.
“David Hawkins is a monster and deserves every single second of those four life sentence he was sentenced to today,” said prosecutor Leighton D’Antoni.
In court on Friday, one survivor from a 1985 assault asked the judge to let Hawkins remove his face mask.
“I have never seen his face. He had on a ski mask that night,” the woman told the judge.
The judge told Hawkins he could remove his mask.
“I have been searching for you for 35 years,” the woman said. “I always wanted a face and a name for the sicko who raped me.”
She described how Hawkins broke into her condo while she slept, held a gun to her head and raped her. He also stole money and jewelry from her.
“I would not let it define me,” she said of the assault. “The search for you has empowered me.”
The investigation went cold until 2005 when the woman called the Dallas Police Department’s sexual assault unit to check on her case. That’s when the DNA from her rape kit was linked to three other aggravated sexual assaults in Dallas and two rapes in Shreveport, La.
‘Stop crying and stay quiet’
A woman woke up on April 27, 1985, to the sound of someone inside her bedroom tinkering with a light switch. She saw a man wearing “a turquoise ski mask with pink around the eyes and dark blue gloves,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
He told her, “Either get [expletive] or get killed.”
The man put the woman on her stomach and tied her hands behind her back. Once she was tied up, he rummaged through her purse and took $100 from her wallet, according to police records.
He then “threatened to gag her if she didn’t stop crying and stay quiet,” the arrest affidavit says.
After the man raped the woman, he used a washcloth to clean himself and forced the woman into her bathroom. He told her to wait for 15 minutes before coming out. The man left with the washcloth, police records say.
The woman called 911. She underwent a sexual assault exam at the hospital. The rape kit, the woman’s bedsheets and another washcloth she used were collected and tested for DNA. No matches were found for two decades.
‘Went cold again’
Though the six rapes were linked through DNA testing in 2005, the “case went cold again,” police records say.
The investigation was re-opened in 2020. Genealogy DNA testing was used to identified a family tree, which led detectives to Hawkins.
In August 2020, FBI Special Agent Randall White was watching Hawkins’ home in Keene, Texas. White picked up Hawkins’ trash and submitted a beer can and bottle for DNA testing. No other man lived in the home and the DNA testing from the beers matched to the DNA found from the rapes in the 1980s.
Other assaults
On Dec. 18, 1982, a woman woke up to a man pulling the covers off her and pointing a gun to her face. The man raped the woman and then stole money and jewelry. At one point, the woman’s roommate came home, according to a police report.
The man held the roommate at gunpoint and told her to undress. He then raped the other woman again. He left after telling both women to be quiet.
On Aug. 18, 1983, a woman was asleep in her bed when she heard her door open. A masked man came in and forced her to lay on her stomach. The man tied her hands behind her back. He raped her, while threatening to shoot her if she didn’t cooperate, according to a police report.
Afterward, the man untied the woman and told her to wash up. He then took some jewelry and said, “Don’t tell anyone this happened. Just forget about it.”
Those assaults were linked through DNA testing to Hawkins.
Victim advocate Mackenzie Kile read statements from other survivors in court on Friday. They each described the fear they felt for years after they were assaulted — they had to sleep with the lights on and obsessively check the locks in their rooms.
“In spite of you, I have a good life,” one woman wrote.
She said she’s glad Hawkins will take his last breath in prison.
Cold case solved
The district attorney’s office investigation was the result of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative federal grant, which funds two investigator positions, two victim advocate positions and two dedicated prosecutor positions for cold case homicides and sexual assault cases.
D’Antoni, the prosecutor, said the team used forensic genetic genealogy analysis to identify Hawkins with help from the FBI.
“It was truly the only way these cases were going to be solved,” he said. The genealogy testing “is the future of solving previously unsolvable cold cases. I am excited that here in Dallas County, we will be national leaders using this tool to solve violent cold cases.”
