Montana Killer of Three Family Members to Be Executed Friday

Case info:
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/08/06/news/state/25-dawson_z.txt

David Thomas Dawson: A Confounding Killer

Gary Hatfield found the bodies.

Dennis Paxinos almost broke down in the courtroom as he described the
slaying of an 11-year-old boy.

Diane Barz prayed after sentencing the killer to death.

Twenty years after three members of a family were murdered at a
Billings motel by David Dawson, the crimes remain indelible in memory
for many people in the community. For those in the criminal justice
system who were involved in the case, like Hatfield, Paxinos and Barz,
Dawson's crimes are even more personal.

Hatfield, a former police detective who discovered the crime, has
stayed in contact with relatives of the victims.

Paxinos, the Yellowstone County attorney who as a young assistant
prosecuted Dawson, has kept the case file in his office for two
decades.

Barz, a retired District Court judge who presided at Dawson's trial,
said Dawson is the only person she sent to death row.

All three say they are satisfied that after so many years, Dawson is
now within days of having his death sentence carried out.

"It's long awaited," Hatfield said.

"The years that have gone by haven't completely erased my thoughts
about whether or not the death penalty is the appropriate punishment in
any case," Barz said. "However, if it is appropriate punishment, this
case is the one to impose it."

The three say they have no doubt about Dawson's guilt, but a troubling
question remains: Why did a man with no record of violent behavior
suddenly commit such a crime?

Hatfield said a clear motive was never established.

"What struck me about him is, he wasn't a career criminal," Paxinos
said. "The only thing on his record was a misdemeanor possession of
marijuana."

Barz recalls Dawson as a man without emotion. She made note of his
apparent lack of remorse when she imposed the death penalty. She still
questions what drove Dawson to kill.

"I don't think it will ever make complete sense until, and if ever, he
tells us," she said.

David and Monica Rodstein, both 39, and their 11-year-old son, Andrew,
were found dead in a room at the Airport Metra Inn in the early hours
of Sunday, April 20, 1986. Two days earlier, at about 4:30 a.m. as the
family was preparing to leave Billings, Dawson forced them at gunpoint
into his motel room. He bound, drugged and strangled the couple and
their son in the room.

The couple's 15-year-old daughter, Amy, survived for nearly two days
until she was rescued by Hatfield and other officers checking the motel
for information on the missing family.

Dawson, then 28, was charged with multiple counts of murder, aggravated
kidnapping and robbery. He was convicted on all counts at the close of
trial in March 1987. A month later, Barz sentenced Dawson to death.

With legal appeals finally ended, Dawson's death sentence is to be
carried out sometime after midnight on Thursday. The execution will
take place in a small trailer behind the maximum-security unit at the
Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, where Dawson has spent nearly
two-thirds of his adult life.

If the execution proceeds as scheduled, Dawson will be the third
Montana inmate to die by lethal injection.

Dawson spent the past two years arguing for his own execution. He
successfully ended his appeals earlier this year by convincing both
state and federal judges that he is competent and aware of the
consequences of his decision.

Two recent legal challenges by a group led by the American Civil
Liberties Union were rejected by the state Supreme Court. An attempt to
stop the execution is scheduled to be heard in federal court Monday.

Many of those directly involved in the case have been reluctant to
discuss it publicly while the appeals were still pending. Others have
chosen to remain silent for other reasons.

Amy, the surviving victim, is now married, has children and lives in
California. She has not spoken publicly about the crime since she
testified at the trial.

Gary Wilcox, one of Dawson's court-appointed defense attorneys,
declined recently to be interviewed about the case. Wilcox said he
considers his representation of Dawson to be private under
attorney-client confidentiality rules.

Dawson has declined all interview requests.

Hatfield, Paxinos and Barz recently shared their recollections of the
case.

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