JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. - A jury in northeastern Tennessee sentenced Howard Hawk Willis to death Monday after convicting him of first-degree murder in the dismemberment killing of a newlywed teenage Georgia couple eight years ago.
Jurors began deliberating Saturday, took Sunday off and convicted him early Monday afternoon, then sentenced him less than two hours later. The trial began last Monday.
The six-man, six-woman jury found Willis guilty in the killing of 17-year-old Adam Chrismer and 16-year-old Samantha Leming Chrismer of Chickamauga, Ga. The boy's head was found in Boone Lake in October 2002 and his severed hands were found nearby. The bodies of both teens were found in a rented storage unit in Johnson City.
The state had asked for the death penalty.
Willis, 59, who represented himself at the trial, showed no emotion when convicted and sentenced.
He had said in his opening statement that he was set up after trying to help the young newlyweds.
Prosecutors had introduced a recording from Willis' ex-wife in which he told her, "Yeah. I blew their brains out."
Investigators have said Willis and the couple met while they were living in northwest Georgia and were involved in a sex-for-cocaine relationship. Authorities said Willis killed the two at his mother's home after the three traveled to Johnson City in early October 2002.
The trial had been repeatedly delayed for several reasons.