The jury is still out on the Dave Hawk case, after more than five hours of closed-door deliberations on Wednesday.

Jurors met at Kings County Superior Court at 9 a.m. on Wednesday to receive final instructions before convening to decide the 51-year-old Lemoore man's fate.

Court officials said the jury remained in chambers throughout the day, minus an hour-and-a-half- long lunch at noon. Judge Daniel Creed dismissed them at 4:30 p.m.

Hawk is accused of killing his ex-wife, Debbie Hawk, for financial gain. He's also facing five counts of tax fraud, three counts of embezzling money from his children's trust fund accounts, loan fraud and perjury.

The jury was given the case on Wednesday after 11 days of trial proceedings. The case has lasted just over three weeks, far below the original six- to eight-week estimate by Hawk's defense team.

The prosecution and defense highlighted several key issues in the case during lengthy closing arguments on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Larry Crouch described Hawk as a "liar and a thief" who killed his ex-wife to hide the embezzlement of "a third of a million dollars" from his children's trust-fund accounts.

Investigators say Hawk is the only possible suspect because of many irregularities found at the crime scene in June 2006, and because Hawk would have been the only likely party to benefit from his ex-wife's disappearance.

"If she disappeared, Mr. Hawk would never be unmasked as a thief," prosecutor Shane Burns told the court. "All of the evidence points to him."

However, the defense pointed to the lack of any physical evidence linking Hawk to the crime.

"Where's the evidence that Dave did it? How do you prove a negative? There is no evidence that he was ever in Debbie's home or her van," attorney Mark Coleman said. "The prosecution doesn't have a speck of DNA evidence, a single hair follicle, skin flake, anything linking Mr. Hawk to this crime."

The jury resumed deliberations this morning at 9.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2425.

(Aug. 27, 2009)