By: Dalene Davies-Smoot
The final day of trial for Ronald Hawkinson was September 30, 2013.
Because he waived his right to a jury trial at the last minute, it became a bench trial, with only the judge to hear arguments and render a verdict on the fate of Hawkinson, who (alledgedly) shot and killed my husband, Bob Smoot, operations manager at LCS Logistics, and Serif Hidic, owner of LCS Logistics, on May 17, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa.
The pain of the trial was at time unbearable, especially the last day when pictures were shown and the 911 call was heard. It is my husband, Bob Smoot, who even knowing he was facing death, dialed 911 without Hawkinson’s knowledge, put the phone down, and identified the shooter so that the 911 dispatcher heard everything, including who the shooter was.
To hear your husband’s final words of still trying to de-escalate the disgruntled driver to the end, to hear the shots fired into your husband, and to hear your husband fall and moan, is second in horror only to the day it happened. I barely made it to the ladies room to vomit and scream in anguish at what I had just heard.
I would do it all over again if I had to because I wanted to experience as best I could in my life what Bob did in his death. I had been to the office since it happened, I had laid on the office floor imagining where Bob died, and I had fought with my all for his justice while at the same time trying to respect and honor drivers everywhere in the same manner as he did, even though with such irony, he was murdered by a truck driver.
I have yet to sleep since seeing and hearing, yet there is a presence of feeling that I’ve done everything I can now….it’s up to one man – one judge. And we will hear from that judge on Tuesday, October 15, at 8:30 a.m. in Room 208 of the Polk County Courthouse, Des Moines, Iowa.
I would love nothing more than to have the courtroom filled with drivers and ops people, but I know that is impossible. What I know to be possible is for you to please think of our families that morning, pray to God or your higher power, and remember that the cowardly incompetence of evil will always be outdone by good in the end. Just one word….GUILTY. I gotta believe.
Man Who Killed Two At Iowa Trucking Company To Stand Trial