5:40 p.m. Aug. 12: Prosecuting attorneys called their final financial witness today, opening the way for further testimony about the murder allegation against the Lemoore man accused of killing his ex-wife.

“Things are moving along quicker than we expected,” prosecutor Shane Burns said outside the courtroom. “We figured the financial side of the case would last all week, but here it is Wednesday and we’re already moving on to the rest.”

Prosecutors called several witnesses to the stand today to talk about Hawk’s finances from 2001 to 2005.

Heidi Gutierrez, a tax evasion investigator, told the court that during that time period, Hawk did not file federal income tax forms.

Prosecutor Larry Crouch asked the investigator look over several income tax documents filled out by Hawk that, according to Gutierrez, were never filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

She provided a breakdown of how much taxable income Hawk was receiving during that time that should have been reported to the government. The smallest amount was $28,000 and the highest just over $131,000.

The day’s testimony was rounded out by several neighbors who lived near Debbie Hawk’s Hanford home describing the night of the disappearance.

Janet Hughes said she was awakened about 2 a.m. by an “uncontrolled” scream. She rushed to her backyard patio at the same time as her mother, who was also awakened by the same sound.

“It was the sound of something dying, something animal-like, a cry from the gut,” Hughes said. “Then it just stopped dead.”

Burns said that Dave Hawk’s three children may be called to testify Thursday.

Check Thursday’s Sentinel for a more detailed account.

12:39 p.m. Aug. 12: The child support dispute between Dave and Debbie Hawk took center stage in this morning’s court proceedings.

Kim Aguirre, Debbie Hawk’s child custody attorney, discussed the legal battle between the embittered divorcees leading right up to Debbie’s disappearance.

“We were requesting modification of child support,” Aguirre said. “We were asking for copies of Mr. Hawk’s financial documents and he thought we didn’t have a right to them.”

Income tax forms were apparently filed by Dave Hawk that sent up a “red flag” for Aguirre, indicating that something was amiss.

In 2002 and 2003, Hawk’s forms showed that he had “no taxable income,” according to Aguirre, yet he continued to pay off his roughly $14,000 mortgage.

Hawk’s attorney filed a motion to quash Aguirre’s requests to get his financial documents, but they arrived in the lawyer’s hands anyway. The contents of those documents would have been revealed at a July 2006 hearing — except Debbie Hawk disappeared prior to the court date.

Aguirre’s testimony will continue this afternoon.

10:52 a.m. Aug. 12: The testimony of Mary Royer, Dave Hawk's ex-girlfriend, continues this morning.

Royer said on the stand that investigators asked her "what could be done to hurt" Hawk in a ploy to drive him to the breaking point.

"I told them his computers and his church were very important to him," Royer said. "The next day, they confiscated his computers as evidence and conducted a search warrant at his church and questioned the parishoners."

A good deal of the testimony lingered on a quote Royer once described as Hawk's "mantra," that "This is not going to stop until that (expletive) (expletive) is dead."

Defense attorney Mark Coleman asked if Royer considered this statement a threat against Hawk's ex-wife, Debbie. Royer said "I just took it to mean these problems were going to continue for the rest of their lives. I never ever thought Hawk was talking about killing her."

Coleman also asked Royer directly if she had any involvement in Debbie Hawk's disappearance.

"No, I did not," Royer said. "I still love Dave, I always will, but I would never lie for him."

The prosecution is setting up audio recordings of Royer's previous police interviews to be played when court returns from recess ar 11 a..m.

5:03: p.m. Aug. 11: Tears came to Mary Royer’s eyes this afternoon at the thought of the multiple repeated interrogations she endured.

Defense attorney Mark Coleman made a show of slamming two 6-inch-thick binders down in front of Royer, then asking, “Can you see the jury from behind those?”

The binders contained more than 1,000 pages of transcripts from the 12 interviews Royer has endured since Debbie Hawk disappeared in 2006.

Title: Dave Hawk   Date: Aug. 11th, 2009 Dave Hawk time line of events. VIEW TIMELINE »

Royer acknowledged that she received numerous threats from investigators, including threats to take her three children away, to put her parents in jail or that she would be exposed as a co-conspirator alongside Dave Hawk.

“They never asked about the good things in our relationship,” said Royer, Hawk’s ex-girlfriend. “They just wanted to know the bad things he said about her. Every alley went to Dave in this investigation.”

She said she could “never fully wrap” her head around the allegations that Hawk had killed his ex-wife, even when she was interviewed by the FBI.

“I tried to be the best help I could be,” Royer said. “They said they had a mountain of evidence against him. It was less than a month after she disappeared and they only blamed David. Any other possibility I brought up, they immediately shot it down.”

Royer broke into tears again when Coleman asked if she covered for Hawk by lying to investigators.

“I couldn’t even think about Dave,” she said between sobs. “My concern was me and my children.”

Judge Daniel Creed brought the day’s testimony to a close with Royer's final statement. She is expected to take the stand again Wednesday morning.

3:09 p.m. Aug. 11: Vacations, car payments and other aspects of the financial dynamic between Dave Hawk and his then-girlfriend Mary Royer took center stage in this afternoon's testimony.

 Prosecutor Larry Crouch asked Royer to discuss a trip the pair made to Hawaii in March 2006 and the gift purchase of a Lexus for Royer. When the pair returned from the trip, Hawk announced that he was "out of money," she said.

When asked for more details about their financial situation, Royer said she had "very limited involvement" with it.

Crouch asked loudly, "You're paying all the bills, how can you be more involved than that?"

His statement brought objections from the defense. 

Royer will take the stand again after this afternoon's brief recess. The defense has yet to question Royer before the court.

12:42 p.m. Aug. 11: Dave Hawk’s ex-girlfriend, Mary Royer, was called before the court this morning to testify about the pair’s financial situation during their five-year relationship.

Royer said that Hawk received $500 a month from his father, Stan Hawk, to tend to a 40-acre almond orchard. Beyond that, Royer said Hawk remained unemployed until their relationship dissolved in November 2005.

Hawk held a job when Royer first met him, but he quit since “the work hours were too long and he couldn’t see his kids as much as he wanted,” Royer said.

Prosecutor Larry Crouch grilled Royer on how they were able to pay the bills on such a limited income.

“Dave frequently made deposits to our joint bank account,” she said. “He said they were from investments, but I never asked about them.”

Finances are the key element to this case, as Hawk is charged with murder for financial gain for the disappearance of his ex-wife Debbie Hawk, as well as the theft of $337,959.32 from his children’s trust funds.

Federal Bureau of Investigations financial analyst Carole Donovan appeared before the court to discuss numerous deposits and withdrawals from Hawk’s bank account and from the trust funds from 2000 to 2006.

Donovan was tasked with “following the money” and made detailed reports of where money was coming from and going to over the years. However, when asked by defense attorney Mark Coleman, she specified that she did not categorize the expenditures based on what they were used for.

“I was asked to obtain the records and put them into Microsoft Excel,” Donovan said. “It was strictly a simple analysis. We made no attempt to figure out what the money was used for, we just watched the flow of money.”

It appeared that the prosecution wanted the court to believe that Hawk was living almost entirely off the money taken from the trust funds. Coleman, however, pointed to a complete lack of luxury expenditures in the account, and said there was no evidence that Hawk had been living a lavish lifestyle with these funds.

10:25 a.m. Aug. 11: FBI financial analyst Carole Donovan was the first witness for the prosecution called today. She has done a lengthy investigation of Hawk's financial records.

This morning Donovan gave a complete rundown of all deposits and withdrawals from both Dave Hawk's bank account and the children's trust fund.

She gave a year-by-year summary of all financial transactions. For 2004, she said $105,234 was deposited in the trust fund and $51,000 was withdrawn by Hawk. In 2005 the amount deposited was $47,747 and the amount withdrawn was $23,250.

No context was given, but it appears the prosecution is trying to infer that Dave Hawk was living off the trust fund account for several years.

11:30 a.m. Aug. 10: Prosecutors concluded opening statements at 10:45 a.m. in the opening day of the trial for Dave Hawk, the Lemoore man accused of murdering his ex-wife.

Opening statements by the prosecution lasted an hour, 15 minutes, and a majority of the statement was presented by prosecutor Shane Burns. The statement focused on the theft of money from a trust fund set up for the Hawk children.

Prosecutors said a total amount of $337,959.22 was taken from the fund between January 2001 and June 2006. Debbie Hawk went missing in June 2006, and her body has never been recovered.

3:46 p.m. Aug. 10: The first three prosecution witnesses testified this afternoon during the first day of the murder trial of Dave Hawk, accused of killing his former wife.

The witnesses included William Triantis, father of Hawk’s ex-wife Debbie; and Stanley Hawk, Hawk’s father. The third witness in the early afternoon was Hanford police Investigator Richard Pontecorvo.

Much of the testimony dealt with the setup and purpose of trust funds for the Hawk children. Court was scheduled to remain in session until 4:30 p.m.

Earlier today, both the prosecution and defense teams made opening statements to the jury.

Court took a break at the conclusion of the prosecution’s opening arguments, and resumed later in the morning with Hawk’s defense team presenting its opening statements.