GUILTY SC - Jennifer Wilson, 36, USC professor, murdered, Shandon, 28 Aug 2011

Admired USC professor killed in Shandon

A globe-trotting, energetic education professor respected by colleagues and loved by students was killed this weekend inside her Shandon home, shocking a tight-knit College of Education she joined six years ago.

Jennifer Lee Wilson, 36, was stabbed multiple times during an altercation inside her Monroe Street home early Sunday morning, according to Columbia police who have now charged Hank Hawes, 37, with the murder.

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“Here was a woman who could spend a year traveling all around Norway on a Fulbright as an American and USC ambassador, teach four classes online and never miss a beat,” said Doyle Stevick, an assistant professor in the College of Education. “If any of us had to pick the colleague who would still be going full speed at age 105, there was no question that it would be Jennifer Wilson. I think of the many hundreds of future teachers who over the next three decades who will have had the opportunity to be touched by her passion and commitment stolen away.”

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“The void in our lives now is now beyond words,” Virtue said.

http://www.dailygamecock.com/news/item/1833-usc-professor-murdered-in-shandon

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Columbia Police: Hank Hawes Killed Jennifer L. Wilson

http://www.wltx.com/news/crimestoppers/article/149238/28/Police-Man-Killed-USC-Assistant-Professor-

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Ex-boyfriend charged in death of USC professor

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Ex-boyfriend-charged-in-death-of-USC-professor-2145611.php

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Hank Hawes is on trial for the murder of Jennifer Wilson, a professor with the school's education department. Investigators said Hawes and Wilson met online and were seeing each other for several months before the professor was found dead of stab wounds in her Shandon home back in August 2011.

State prosecutors pointed the finger squarely at Hawes and said he showed up at Wilson's home around 2:24 a.m. just minutes before neighbors heard screaming. One neighbor who testified said he even heard Wilson "pleading for her life" at one point.

Prosecutors said Hawes told a woman that he killed Wilson in "self-defense." Wilson had 12 stab wounds and 10 slash wounds.

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The first two witnesses for the prosecution, a Columbia police officer and Richland County paramedic, described Jennifer Wilson’s duplex on Monroe Street on the morning of Aug. 28 as one filled with blood.

But Wilson’s unclothed body – covered with a white comforter – was clean, said paramedic Robert Howe, who responded about 11:30 a.m. It appeared her hair had been washed.

At the foot of the couch where she lay was a thermal cooler bag filled about one-third full with blood, he said. “Blood covered the house. We had to be very cautious about where we stepped,” Howe said. “It covered the walls, it spattered on the walls, it spattered on the ceilings.”

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Investigator John Van Houten lead the morning testimonies, reading aloud intimate texts and emails between Wilson and Hawes, who had been in a relationship before the killing.

In one exchange, Wilson seems to ask for distance and time apart.

Wilson: Give me time and space
Hawes: As you wish, I love you Jenny
Wilson: You're killing me

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Hank Hawes, the man accused of murdering a popular University of South Carolina professor, has taken the stand in his own defense on Monday. Hawes spent his time on the stand detailing the sequence of events that happened just before 36-year-old Jennifer Wilson was fatally stabbed in her Shandon home.

Hawes said he had to defend himself when Wilson bit his hand and came at him with a kitchen knife during an early morning argument. He says the dispute began after he went to the house to break off their relationship.

Hawes told the jury he remembers seeing blood everywhere as the two struggled, but can't recall pushing, punching, or stabbing Wilson.

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A Richland County jury has found a 40-year-old Columbia man guilty in the stabbing death of a University of South Carolina professor.

Circuit Judge J. C. Nicholson Jr. sentenced Hank Hawkes to life in prison without parole Thursday for killing 36-year-old Jennifer Wilson in 2011.

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