A trial opened Monday for the last man implicated in a 2018 Gary junkyard murder.
Hillard Hathaway, now 52, of Merrillville, was charged in February 2018 with murder, with co-defendant Michael Brown, in the death of Danny Leake, 44, of Gary. Hathaway faced an additional count of attempted murder.
Leake died Jan. 25, 2018 after he was found shot in an empty lot near a junkyard in the 1400 block of East 19th Avenue, court records show. Brown was acquitted in November 2018.
Hathaway has pleaded not guilty.
Officer Devante Bradley, then with Gary Police, testified Monday that Leake was still breathing when he got there, but appeared to die at the scene.
Lake County Coroner’s Office Forensic Pathologist Dr. Zhuo Wang testified that Leake was shot multiple times, but not at close range.
Hathaway’s defense lawyer Robert Varga said Monday that Leake and Brown argued on the phone before the shooting, alcohol was involved and they would question the credibility of the attempted murder victim, who the lawyer argued lied to police.
Officers responded shortly after 1:30 a.m. that day for a call of shots fired and found Leake lying on his back in an empty lot near a junkyard, the affidavit states. Leake had “several gunshot wounds to his upper body,” and the Lake County coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide.
A witness said he and Leake had spent the day together towing vehicles, court records state. When they pulled up to “the yard” on 19th Avenue, they saw a burgundy Suburban with tinted windows and a black Mercury vehicle there, according to the affidavit.
Hathaway was “taking the batteries out of a semi truck,” so the witness confronted him, the affidavit states, and Hathaway claimed the truck belonged to him.
The witness relayed that the owner of the lot said Hathaway and Brown “weren’t supposed to be in the yard,” according to the affidavit.
Hathaway got a gun and “started yelling to Danny not to reach for anything,” court records state. The witness said “it wasn’t that serious and that they didn’t have any guns,” according to the affidavit.
Hathaway pointed a gun at the witness and shot twice but “the bullets just missed him,” the affidavit states. The witness ran to a junk vehicle as Leake went toward Brown, who was shooting, court records show. Leake “was running kind of like in a circle while they were shooting at him,” as Hathaway shot about 10 times, the affidavit states.
“(Hathaway and Brown) were shooting at Danny at an angle where they both kind of kept shooting until they met Danny in the middle with gunfire,” according to the original charging affidavit.
They continued to shoot at Leake “on the ground after he had fallen,” court records show.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
