William Hawkins Florida man who suffocated 95 year old Port St Lucie nursing resident as they slept confesses murder was part of life goal.
A Florida man has been charged with premeditated murder after breaking into a nursing home and suffocating a 95-year-old resident —in a bid to fulfill what the man described as a ‘life goal.’
William Eugene Hawkins, 47 was booked with the Jan. 5 slaying of Robert Morell at the Tiffany Hall Nursing & Rehab Center in Port St. Lucie, TCPalm.com reports. The murder follows the man visiting the facility as a visitor earlier that day.
‘I’ve accomplished my life goal, OK?’ Hawkins who who has addresses in Vero Beach and Fort Pierce, told detectives. ‘Whatever happens to me after, that’s fine.’
Hawkins, who was jailed the day after Morell’s death on unrelated theft charges, confessed to the killing to his sister in jail, cops said. He told her he had been planning the killing for years and used Morell’s long-term girlfriend — whom he had also been dating for about five months — to get close to his victim.
It’s unclear why Hawkins wanted Morell dead. He told his sister that Morell wrote a book about him, but case documents do no indicate that title or whether the victim had written any books.
Suspect describes murder akin to achieving life goal of climbing Mt. Everest:
Hawkins, had been a suspect in Morell’s death after matching the description of a man staffers saw on top of Morell just prior to his death, TCPalm.com reports.
‘Police learned a nurse walked past the male patient’s room when she noticed an unknown male suspect sitting on top of the patient’s chest, holding a pillow over his face,’ investigators wrote of the incident which occurred just after midnight.
TC Palm reports the nurse shouting for help – only for the suspect to flee. The patient was dead when police arrived.
The suspect fled, but detectives later learned that Morell’s girlfriend of 15 years had called the nursing home just hours before the resident’s death to warn employees not to let Hawkins into the facility, police said.
Hawkins was arrested the day after Morell’s death on other charges, including the theft of a Cadillac belonging Morell’s unidentified girlfriend. But investigators continued to eye him in the man’s death while in custody.
Hawkins’ sister then told police she thought she could get her brother to talk about the slaying if he was involved, leading him to eventually confess as she wore a recording device for investigators.
‘Did you put the pillows over his face?’ Hawkins’ sister asked.
‘Yeah, I did,’ he replied, case documents show.
Hawkins initially planned to kill Morell with a ‘cocktail’ he planned to administer via injection. He also described how he felt after taking the man’s life, records show.
‘[Let’s say in your life you wanted to climb Mount Everest, OK? And all your life you trained and trained and trained to climb Mount Everest. OK?’ Hawkins said, according to records. ‘And finally you climbed it, in all your life, finally you made it to the top, when you made it to the top, how would you feel?’
