Inquest to be held in disabled man's death by starvation
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A 41-year-old man, abused as an infant into physical and intellectual disability, and starved to death by his brother will be the subject of a coroner’s inquest, the province announced Wednesday.
Jamie Hawley weighed just 57 pounds and his frail body was covered in 33 bed sores when he died at Brockville General Hospital in May 2008.
Three months into his life, doctors diagnosed him as a victim of shaken baby syndrome, which left him with cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability. He used a wheelchair but, living with his younger brother Jerry Hawley in the final several years of his life, he was confined to the upstairs level of their home without a ramp.
Steve McKellar, who worked with Jamie Hawley at Community Living in Kingston and was his roommate for a time, was surprised but happy to hear the news of the inquest.
“Nothing’s going to bring him back,” McKellar said. “But his death won’t be in vain.”
Jerry Hawley was initially charged with first-degree murder in what police alleged was the deliberate starvation of a vulnerable man, motivated by sheer greed. That charge was later reduced to second-degree murder. In February 2013, a jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
An inquest is “further confirmation that Jamie’s life was valued, and this is a worthwhile issue to pursue further in the interest of ensuring it doesn’t happen again,” McKellar said. “Jamie was a vulnerable person. There are others like him who are equally vulnerable.”
Hawley’s official cause of death was listed as starvation, pneumonia and infected bedsore. Experts testified at trial that these were preventable ailments that could have been treated before they became fatal.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny sentenced Jerry Hawley to 20 years in prison for circumstances she said were “near-murder” carried out by a man “primarily interested in working, partying, beer and drugs” and not the responsibility of caring for his brother.
“It is a tale of a young man with serious physical and mental disabilities who was taken in by his brother for his disability benefits and who ended up being ignored, neglected, degraded, tortured and starved,” Ratushny said in her decision.
“It is a harrowing account of extreme neglect that should never have happened.”
The inquest will attempt to determine how exactly it did happen and a jury will be tasked with making recommendations to prevent similar deaths. Inquests do not lay blame or find fault. Inquests are not typically called until all criminal charges have been resolved.
Jerry Hawley had filed a notice for leave to appeal both his conviction and his sentence but has since abandoned the conviction appeal, his lawyer Sam Scratch confirmed to the Citizen. A date to appeal his sentence has not been set but will not run counter to the inquest.
Disability advocates had been pushing for an inquest since the harrowing details of the case became public.
The Hawleys only learned they were brothers when they were adults. Jamie Hawley was removed from the care of his parents as a child and lived in group homes with others with disabilities. But he longed for family and independence and was thrilled to find out he had a brother. In 2000, the brothers met with support workers, who outlined the type of care Jamie would need if he moved in with his brother.
McKellar said he hopes the inquest will identify ways in which people might slip through cracks in the system.
Social workers routinely sent to the Hawley home while the brothers lived together reported no concerns about the standard of care or possible abuse. But trial evidence showed that others had trouble getting inside the home when visits weren’t scheduled.
No inquest date has been set.
