D.A. Susan Hawk
Dallas District Attorney Susan Hawk addressed the LGBT community at a town hall meeting on Monday (April 25) to discuss safety in Oak Lawn and a hate crime case that was reopened when a judge ordered a new sentencing hearing.
Two people were convicted in the 2008 attack Jimmy Lee Dean on Dickason Avenue between Reagan and Throckmorton streets. Bobby Singleton is serving a 75-year sentence. Jonathan Gunter was serving a 30-year sentence.
Gunter filed motions in his case that he was not adequately represented and mental health issues were not addressed at his trial. A judge ordered the case back to the trial court for resentencing.
“The victim in the case didn’t want to go through trial again,” Hawk said.
She said other witnesses were unavailable, although Michael Robinson, the principle witness was ready to go to court the day the hearing was scheduled.
Hawk’s office offered Gunter a reduction of his sentence from 30 to 18 years. Gunter accepted and remains in prison.
He has served more than a third of his new sentence and will be eligible for parole.
Hawk also addressed safety in the LGBT community and pointed to increased police patrols, volunteer patrols and new cameras as making a difference. She and Dallas Police Northwest Division Chief Catrina Shead said police are no closer to solving any of the string of Oak Lawn attacks last fall.
Several people who attended the meeting reported additional attacks.
Two people said they were threatened by men with guns early Sunday morning (April 24). Another talked about an attack in front of Alexandre’s on August 11, 2015.
Shead took information on both incidents and is addressing them with detectives.
Hawk said she was committed to keeping lines of communication open between her office and the LGBT community.
“Our office can’t just show up once,” she said, referring to her first town hall meeting last December.
