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Staff writer

In an opening statement to a jury Monday morning (Jan. 11), Elizabeth Hawes’ defense attorney said his client did not murder her older brother Edwin Hawes in late October 2008. He placed the blame on Andrew Hawes, the youngest of four siblings.

Andrew Hawes, 37; Elizabeth Hawes, 45; and Andrew’s girlfriend Kristina Dorniden, 30, have been indicted by an Anoka County District Court grand jury on first-degree premeditated murder.

The deteriorated body of 46-year-old Edwin Hawes was found in a bonfire on Dorniden’s Cottonwood County farm around 1 a.m. Oct. 31, 2008. The Anoka County Medical Examiner found an arrow wound in his chest and trauma to the skull and brain.

Elizabeth Hawes’ attorney Peter Wold said she was led to believe by Andrew Hawes that they were going to Edwin Hawes’ Andover home just after midnight Oct. 30, 2008 to repossess a Volkswagen Passat that Andrew said Edwin wrongly took from him.

As she and Andrew Hawes were walking toward the Andover home located on the 2500 block of South Coon Creek Drive after parking in a nearby golf course parking lot, Wold said Andrew told Elizabeth that Edwin was dead and she was to help get rid of the body.

Wold said Elizabeth Hawes screamed at her brother and she went back to the Woodland Creek Golf Club parking lot in a panicked state.

“You’ll find that Elizabeth had no part in and was stunned by the killing of her childhood friend,” Wold told the jury.

The opening statement by prosecutor Paul Young of the Anoka County Attorney’s Office painted a different picture.

According to Young, DNA analysis showed that a cream colored latex glove police recovered was covered in Edwin Hawes’ blood on the outside of the glove and the inside had traces of Elizabeth Hawes’ DNA.

Cottonwood County Sheriff’s deputies found Elizabeth Hawes standing next to the bonfire about 1 a.m. Oct. 31 on a family farm owned by Dorniden, Young said.

The deputies previously saw Andrew Hawes tending to the fire when they first stopped by around 11 p.m. Oct. 30, according to the criminal complaint. Police told him it was an illegal fire and left the property.

When the deputies stopped by the farm a second time and told Elizabeth Hawes that her brother was missing, Young said the officers reported that she said that maybe he had got in an accident and she hoped he was dead.

Officers asked Elizabeth Hawes about the fire and what they saw burning inside it and she responded by saying that was not her brother, he said.

Police doused the fire and found human remains.

Young told the courtroom about the deteriorated condition of the body and how dental records were needed to make a positive identification.

Elizabeth Hawes is the first of the three suspects to go on trial. Dorniden has a June 1 jury trial date and Andrew Hawes’ jury trial is set to begin April 5.

Searching for answers

Edwin Hawes was last seen alive when he left the Lifetime Fitness in Coon Rapids around 6 p.m. Oct. 29, according to the complaint.

A neighbor later told investigators that they heard multiple raised adult voices coming from the home Edwin Hawes lived at around 7 p.m. that same night, Young said.

Wold said Elizabeth Hawes left her job in Minneapolis around 5 p.m. that day and went home to do housework that evening. Dorniden stopped by to visit during the evening and around 9 p.m. Elizabeth Hawes’ husband and Andrew Hawes came home with a bag of food from McDonalds.

Elizabeth Hawes was up alone ready to go to bed when Andrew Hawes said he saw his Volkswagen Passat vehicle in their brother’s driveway and he wanted to get it back.

Deputy Bryan Pierson from the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office testified that he and another deputy found a truck parked in the golf club parking lot around 2:30 a.m. Oct. 30. The truck had the Hawes Landscaping business name on the side and the license plates record showed this truck was indeed owned by this company.

While the deputies were in the parking lot, Elizabeth Hawes came into the parking lot through the main entrance and walked between the squad cars and talked to them, according to Pierson.

She said she was at a benefit gathering for a friend who had cancer and had parked at the golf course because she did not think she could park on the street and was having car trouble, Pierson testified.

After a conversation with the officers, she briefly walked away before coming back and saying she lost her keys and asked if she could use a phone to call someone, he said.

She talked on the phone and told the two deputies that someone would pick her up in 25 to 30 minutes and walked over to the truck, Pierson testified.

Pierson said they ran a check on Elizabeth Hawes’ name and became aware that Edwin Hawes had filed a restraining order request against his sister, which was granted Sept. 25 in Hennepin County District Court because Elizabeth Hawes lived in Minneapolis.

When he asked her again why she was so near her brother’s home, Elizabeth Hawes stuck to her original story, he said.

Pierson said in his testimony that he was driving to Edwin Hawes’ home to check on him when he saw Andrew Hawes walking in the middle of South Coon Creek Drive, looking disoriented. Andrew Hawes flagged him down and said he was having a diabetic reaction.

An ambulance was called and Andrew Hawes told Pierson that he had some candy in his truck that would help him, so Pierson took him back to the parking lot where the other deputy and Elizabeth Hawes were.

Pierson said the Hawes siblings never had contact with each other while the deputies were at the golf course parking lot.

Elizabeth Hawes eventually admitted that she had been by Edwin Hawes’ home to repossess the Volkswagen Passat and she showed Pierson the key, he said.

However, Pierson could not recall for the courtroom whether Elizabeth Hawes told him she had actually been on the property or drove by.

Pierson testified that Elizabeth Hawes told him she was aware of the restraining order and what the restrictions are.

On the other hand, Andrew Hawes was not answering questions, Pierson said. He was released after receiving medical attention.

Between 3:30 and 4 a.m. Oct. 30 Pierson drove into the driveway of Edwin Hawes’ Andover home. He saw another vehicle in the driveway, but not the Volkswagen. He knocked on the door and the homeowner answered the door.

Pierson said the homeowner walked downstairs to see if Edwin was home and checked the garage to see if the Volkswagen was in there, but he could not find his roommate or the vehicle.

Pierson left the home, which was poorly lit on the outside.

The next morning, relatives of the homeowner spotted a pool of blood in the driveway and called police, Young said. A missing person report was filed.

At the home, police found blood on the driveway, home and landscaping. An off-duty sheriff’s deputy found Edwin Hawes’ wallet in the middle of South Coon Creek Drive, Young said.

The search for evidence on the Andover home property and the golf course uncovered a crossbow, a quiver with bolts and a baseball bat, which were all painted black with black spray paint.

Wold said cardboard pieces found at the home Andrew Hawes was staying at had black spray-paint outlines of a crossbow, arrows and baseball bat.

The Volkswagen was later recovered in the parking lot of a Golden Valley church. The interior was covered with Edwin Hawes’ blood and a maul covered in blood that had been painted black was in the trunk.

The truck found on Dorniden’s farm had blood on the tailgate.

Family turmoil

Wold said Elizabeth and Edwin Hawes were the oldest of four siblings and very close. They shared many friends, church activities and she got him involved with a couple of theater productions she was involved with, he said. She gave him relationship advice and helped with wedding preparations.

Wold said when Elizabeth Hawes and her husband got back from a vacation in Europe in March 2007, she was told by Andrew Hawes that Edwin Hawes had embezzled about $1 million from the lawn care business. A trust fund of their grandmother’s once valued at over half a million dollars also shrunk significantly.

Edwin Hawes moved to Andover in 2007 to rent a room from the home on the 2500 block of South Coon Creek Drive.

When he was taking his young daughter home from a dance recital in 2007, he saw Elizabeth Hawes and Kristina Dorniden following him, Young said.

Andrew and Elizabeth Hawes suspected that Edwin Hawes had taken this money, but he had cut off contact with the family. They even reported the theft to the Robbinsdale Police on two occasions, Young said.

The Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force investigated the embezzlement, but found nothing, according to Young.

On July 19, 2008, Andrew Hawes ran his car into a vehicle that Edwin Hawes’ and his young daughter were in, Young said.

Elizabeth Hawes called Edwin Hawes’ ex-wife to find out what the visitation schedule of their young daughter was, according to Young.

Edwin Hawes filed a restraining order against Elizabeth Hawes after she was spotted on the Andover property he lived at. Young said.

She was arrested the early morning of Oct. 30, 2008 for violating this, Pierson said.

Eric Hagen is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it