Elizabeth Larson – Record-Bee staff
LAKEPORT The woman who may prove to be the most important witness in a Nevada man”s murder trial spent a full day on the witness stand Thursday, telling the court how she was forced to help dispose of the victim”s body.
Sharmon Hawley testified for nearly four hours on Thursday, completing the second week of Paul Smiraglia”s murder trial, which began June 6.
Smiraglia, 46, is accused of the July 2002 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Diedre Coleman. He is facing a first-degree murder charge, with a special enhancement for torture, after he allegedly injected Coleman with drugs before killing her with a blow to the head.
Hawley is the prosecution”s key witness; she testified Wednesday that she was present in her mobile home on Alvida Street in Clearlake which she was sharing with Smiraglia and Coleman on the night Coleman died.
During Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff”s questioning, which began mid-morning Wednesday and wrapped up late Thursday morning, Hawley recounted the days immediately after Coleman”s murder.
Although she has been portrayed by other witnesses in the trial as having had a romantic relationship with Smiraglia, Hawley said she acted like his girlfriend even entering into a sexual relationship with him in order to survive. She said she wanted to gain his trust after he allegedly killed Coleman in order to protect herself.
The two moved around together, and she said Smiraglia rarely let her out of his sight. The two used methamphetamine heavily, and Smiraglia who reportedly manufactured meth planned to make a large batch of the drug to help him leave Clearlake.
Hawley said Wednesday that after Smiraglia allegedly killed Coleman, they placed Coleman”s body in a large plastic tub used to store toys belonging to Hawley”s children, who were away at the time.
On Thursday, she recounted that she stalled Smiraglia as he tried to get her to help him dispose of Coleman”s body.
He wanted her to drive him to a remote place to bury Coleman, she said, but she kept finding excuses not to do so. “I was afraid that I was going to be buried with her.”
Eventually, she said, Smiraglia grew angry at the delays, and they loaded Coleman”s body into the trunk of Hawley”s car and drove out to a remote area along a dirt road off Highway 20.
She said that, at one point, she tried to run away, but that Smiraglia caught her, knocking her to the ground and threatening to kill her if she didn”t help him.
They unloaded Coleman”s body, still wrapped in a blue tarp and tied with rope, and she said Smiraglia began kicking Coleman down the embankment.
Hawley began sobbing as she recounted how “he kicked her with his foot like she was nothing.”
The next month, on Aug. 15, 2002, Hawley and Smiraglia were arrested at a Clearlake gas station on drugs and weapons charges. Smiraglia was wanted on charges in Nevada and eventually was taken back there.
However, even after that, Hawley was reluctant to tell police all that she knew for a variety of reasons, according to her testimony. She had friends who discouraged her from going forward, and she was paranoid and scattered from heavy drug use. It was another year in July 2003 before she took police to find Coleman”s body.
When she went to the county”s Victim Witness Program, housed in the District Attorney”s Office, she said they told her at the time they could not help her, because she was considered to be involved with the crime, not a victim of it.
But, perhaps most important, she believed she and her family were endangered, which she reiterated throughout the day.
Smiraglia, she said, told her he had criminal connections in Nevada and if she spoke out she would suffer the consequences. “I believed every bit of it,” she said.
Hawley”s fears appeared to have been justified. During her testimony, she told of an interview in 2004 she had with Clearlake Police detectives, during which they told her that Smiraglia had tried to hire a fellow Nevada prison inmate to kill her.
“I wasn”t surprised, and I figured he would try it again,” she said.
The inconsistencies in Hawley”s past accounts and her previous unwillingness to disclose what she knew to police proved to be key points for defense attorney Doug Rhoades.
During just under two hours of cross-examination, Rhoades drew repeated attention to the discrepancies in Hawley”s previous accounts.
He also questioned her about why she continued to withhold some parts of what she knew such as her presence during Coleman”s murder when she already had told police that Smiraglia was allegedly to blame.
Hawley said she had remained frightened for herself and her family, and wanted the police to give her some assurance of her safety.
During Hinchcliff”s redirect questioning following cross-examination, he appeared to try to strengthen Hawley”s credibility by drawing attention to her concerns and her former mental condition, which gave rise to her conflicting statements.
The trial recessed at just after 3 p.m. Thursday, and will resume June 20 at 9 a.m. in Superior Court”s Department 3, with Judge Arthur Mann presiding.
Contact Elizabeth Larson at elarson@record-bee.
