Nearly 35 years to the day that authorities pulled Johnny Mack Salyer from a 55-gallon steel drum, opening arguments will begin in his alleged killer's murder trial.
Attorneys spent the morning in Hamilton County Criminal Court, siphoning through a pool of 72 prospective jurors. Around 2 p.m., they settled on 14 people to determine the fate of Billy Hawk.
A grand jury indicted Hawk, 62, in September of first-degree murder and set a $500,000 bond.
During a press conference that same week, District Attorney General Neal Pinkston said Hawk was responsible for the slaying of Salyer. On June 3, 1981, Pinkston said, authorities pulled a 55-gallon steel drum from Lake Chickamauga. Inside, they found a disintegrated man. Several days passed before a relative identified Salyer because of a Rolling Stones tattoo on his thigh.
At the time, Hawk was a suspect in the killing, Pinkston said. He and Salyer were co-defendants in a pending cocaine distribution case. But the case never materialized because of several, younger uncooperative witnesses, he said.
Since the indictment, Pinkston and Hawk's defense attorneys - Bill Speek, Jonathan Turner, and Jimmy Logan - have tangled over evidence.
The defense emphasized that state agents lost the barrel. There could have been exonerating evidence inside, they argued, even though a judge disagreed.
They repeatedly asked prosecutors for a more detailed theory of the killing. They also questioned why a 2015 autopsy showed that Salyer appeared to die from a gunshot wound to the chest when the original X-ray - now missing - never did.
After listening to the arguments, Judge Don Poole ultimately sided with prosecutors and denied a motion to dismiss Hawk's indictment.
If convicted, Hawk faces life in prison or death, according to Pinkston's office.
Because jurors are sequestered (meaning they have to stay in a hotel throughout the trial) attorneys have agreed to stop after opening arguments today.