Byron Booker, Premeditated Murder, Georgia 2024
A former U.S. Army sergeant has been sentenced to life in federal prison for the premeditated murder of a fellow servicemember at Fort Stewart.
Byron Booker, 29, of Ludowici, Ga., was sentenced to life in prison after previously pleading guilty to Premeditated Murder of a Member of the United States Uniformed Services, said David H. Estes, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker also ordered Booker to pay a fine of $2,500 and to serve five years of supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence.
There is no parole in the federal system.
“Byron Booker squandered his own military career by illegally using drugs, and then murdered a former fellow soldier in cold blood in retaliation for that soldier honorably performing his duties,” said U.S. Attorney Estes, a retired U.S. Army Colonel.
“The sentence of life in prison with no parole will serve a measure of justice for Austin Hawk’s family, while affirming the outstanding investigative work that led to Booker’s conviction.”
Booker’s co-defendant, Jordan Brown, 21, of St. Marys, Ga., awaits sentencing after entering a plea of guilty in December 2022 to Assault Upon a U.S. Servicemember Involving Bodily Injury or a Deadly Weapon, and Retaliation Against a Witness Involving Bodily Injury.
As described in court testimony and in the plea agreements for the defendants, Booker, a former U.S. Army sergeant, admitted he and Brown discussed “silencing” Specialist Austin J. Hawk, 21, at Fort Stewart Military Reservation in retaliation for Hawk reporting Brown to U.S. Army leadership for marijuana use.
After gaining entry to Hawk’s barracks room shortly after midnight on June 17, 2020, Booker “slashed and stabbed Hawk repeatedly with a sharp-edged weapon.” A medical examiner noted that Hawk received 40 separate stab or slash wounds, many of them that individually would have been fatal, and cut his own hand during the assault.
Hawk’s body was found in his Fort Stewart barracks room the next day.
Key Facts
- State: Georgia
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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