HOUSTON, TX – Desmond Hawkins, 23, was convicted of capital murder for fatally shooting 11-year-old Dominic Sumicek and his stepfather, Menuell Solomon, 41, while they sat in Solomon’s car outside their home on Oct. 26, 2020.
According to Houston-area law enforcement, Hawkins has a documented history of gang involvement and activity.
Now, Hawkins will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility for parole. That sentence was handed down automatically with the convictions following a two week trial.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg released a statement, saying in part, “A little boy with his whole life ahead of him was murdered because of a cold-blooded ambush in broad daylight. This was a capital murder, and the appropriate sentence is life in prison without parole.”
In the state of Texas, intentionally killing someone under the age of fourteen constitutes a capital offense.
It should be noted that at the time of these slayings, Hawkins was out on bond awaiting trial in another capital murder case from 2016. In that case, he was accused of killing John Pye in an armed robbery attempt. The two men were alleged to have known each other.
At the time he murdered Solomon and Sumicek, he was wearing a GPS ankle monitor. It was that monitor that helped build the case against him.
A week before the murder, Solomon called police, saying that someone tried to shoot him while he was parking his Mercedes at his west Houston home. He claimed he did not know the individual or why he was being targeted.
According to the DA statement, “On the day of the murder, the GPS monitor that Hawkins was wearing showed that he was lying in wait, walking around Solomon’s driveway, waiting for Solomon to come home. Hawkins cut a hole in the chain-link fence to get to Solomon faster and waited for at least three hours for Solomon to come home to carry out the killing.
As Solomon backed into his driveway with his 11-year-old stepson in the passenger seat at about 4:30 p.m., Hawkins emerged from the hole in the fence, shot the 11-year-old twice and then shot Solomon four times, killing them both almost instantly.”
Assistant District Attorney Nancy Ta, who prosecuted the case, said that all the evidence pointed to a premeditated hit. Authorities still haven’t been able to piece together why Solomon was the target.
“The defendant laid in wait for three hours, during the light of day to execute a young boy and his stepfather,” Ta said. “Hawkins made a decision to end Dominic’s life before the boy could even turn 12, and now 12 citizens of Harris County have decided how Hawkins will spend the rest of his.”
The boys mom spoke to local affiliate KTRK at the time of the murders. "I can't sleep. I can't eat. Everything has been taken from me," Krissi Garcia said.
"It's not fair, he was just barely 11. He was a sweet boy. It's one thing to take a grown man, but to take an innocent child, you just don't do that. They're cowards. They're just cowards. Only a coward has to catch a man with a child because he's vulnerable."
According to Houston-area law enforcement, Hawkins has a documented history of gang involvement and activity.
Now, Hawkins will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility for parole. That sentence was handed down automatically with the convictions following a two week trial.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg released a statement, saying in part, “A little boy with his whole life ahead of him was murdered because of a cold-blooded ambush in broad daylight. This was a capital murder, and the appropriate sentence is life in prison without parole.”
In the state of Texas, intentionally killing someone under the age of fourteen constitutes a capital offense.
It should be noted that at the time of these slayings, Hawkins was out on bond awaiting trial in another capital murder case from 2016. In that case, he was accused of killing John Pye in an armed robbery attempt. The two men were alleged to have known each other.
At the time he murdered Solomon and Sumicek, he was wearing a GPS ankle monitor. It was that monitor that helped build the case against him.
A week before the murder, Solomon called police, saying that someone tried to shoot him while he was parking his Mercedes at his west Houston home. He claimed he did not know the individual or why he was being targeted.
According to the DA statement, “On the day of the murder, the GPS monitor that Hawkins was wearing showed that he was lying in wait, walking around Solomon’s driveway, waiting for Solomon to come home. Hawkins cut a hole in the chain-link fence to get to Solomon faster and waited for at least three hours for Solomon to come home to carry out the killing.
As Solomon backed into his driveway with his 11-year-old stepson in the passenger seat at about 4:30 p.m., Hawkins emerged from the hole in the fence, shot the 11-year-old twice and then shot Solomon four times, killing them both almost instantly.”
Assistant District Attorney Nancy Ta, who prosecuted the case, said that all the evidence pointed to a premeditated hit. Authorities still haven’t been able to piece together why Solomon was the target.
“The defendant laid in wait for three hours, during the light of day to execute a young boy and his stepfather,” Ta said. “Hawkins made a decision to end Dominic’s life before the boy could even turn 12, and now 12 citizens of Harris County have decided how Hawkins will spend the rest of his.”
The boys mom spoke to local affiliate KTRK at the time of the murders. "I can't sleep. I can't eat. Everything has been taken from me," Krissi Garcia said.
"It's not fair, he was just barely 11. He was a sweet boy. It's one thing to take a grown man, but to take an innocent child, you just don't do that. They're cowards. They're just cowards. Only a coward has to catch a man with a child because he's vulnerable."
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Comments
2023-09-28T21:16-0400 | Comment by: Todd
Life in prison is not a deterrent for this type of criminal !