Convicted Murderer Gets Life, No Parole

David M. Hawkins escaped the death penalty for the 1993 murder of Leslie L. McKinney of Lewiston, but the 51-year-old man with a history of sexual offenses dating back to his teens will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

“The defendant does well in prison. That’s where he should stay,” 2nd District Judge Ronald Schilling said Friday in sentencing Hawkins to life without the possibility of parole. “It’s the court’s intention David M. Hawkins die in prison.”

Hawkins was convicted of first-degree murder in February after a three-week trial. He was on unsupervised parole from Oregon on Dec. 18, 1993, when he beat McKinney, 32, and then strangled her with an electrical cord.

Her body was found the next morning about 100 yards from where Hawkins’ motor home was parked. Blood in the motor home and semen found in McKinney’s body linked her murder to Hawkins, a twice-convicted rapist.

Nez Perce County Prosecutor Denise Rosen urged Schilling to sentence Hawkins to death, arguing that McKinney’s murder met criteria for that penalty in Idaho law. She said the crime was especially heinous, atrocious and cruel and exhibited exceptional depravity; that Hawkins showed utter disregard for human life; and that by prior behavior and behavior during this crime, Hawkins shows a propensity for murder.

But Schilling said Hawkins’ mental deficiencies, which psychologists testified border on retardation, and the fact he was drunk when he killed McKinney may have prevented him from forming a calculated plan to murder.