Hawkins said he was “blind” when he committed the murder but that God opened his eyes and now he is seeking peace
Brian Keith Hawkins, after coming to know Christ and experiencing the Holy Spirit’s deep conviction, confessed to police that he murdered a young man in 1993 and wanted to do “the right thing” and end the “nightmare” of guilt he’d been living ’til now.
“God and Christ and these things that have happened over the course of 25 years have pushed me and pushed me to do the right thing,” Hawkins told KRCR shortly before turning himself in last Tuesday. “I know the wrong can’t be changed but this is the closest I can come to doing the right thing.”
Hawkins, now 44, and his accomplices, Shanna Culver, 46, who was his girlfriend at the time along with Curtis Culver, 45, were all arrested on charges related to the death of Frank Wesley McAlister, 20, in 1993, Christian News reports.
Describing his life since the murder to KRCR, Hawkins said it was, “Horrible, horrible, horrible, absolute horror, absolutely horrible since that day.” He continued, “Every minute of every day has been a nightmare. It’s kind of weird, Frank never got to have a life, but we were teenagers and now I’m 44 and still haven’t even had a life, and now most likely won’t anyway.”
In his tearful interview, Hawkins said he was “blind” when he committed the murder but that God opened his eyes and now he is seeking peace. “I’ve been through hell my whole life because of this,” he said.
As for McAlister’s family, Hawkins said he contacted them last year to seek their forgiveness and explain what happened, but Frank’s father, Douglas Irvin McAlister, died in October 2017.
“I talked to them several times and told them I was going to make it there so I could tell them what happened and I wanted their forgiveness. By the time I got there, his father had passed away,” Hawkins said.
Frank McAlister’s 81-year-old grandmother, Avis Rice, told the Record Searchlight that the confession came as a “shock,” but she and her family had long suspected Hawkins and his accomplices were responsible for McAlister’s death.