BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN -- Police think he killed a woman, cut her apart with a power saw, persuaded his mother to help hide the body parts -- then fled, leaving his mom to face the consequences.
James Lee Lawson, 29, also repeatedly threatened to kill people -- including his relatives, police said.
Even so, family members and acquaintances point out Mr. Lawson once dropped everything to care for his sick mother. They said he's "a good dad" who enjoyed horseback riding with his three children. And he did favors for neighborhood kids.
"I want people to know he's not a monster," said a relative who spoke to The Cincinnati Enquirer on condition of anonymity. "He's not a bad person."
But authorities say it's hard to see redeeming qualities in a person who is trying to avoid prosecution for the dismemberment-slaying of Cheryl Ann Durkin on or about Feb. 25.
"People can make that kind of blanket statement -- that he's not a bad guy -- but I don't believe you just wake up one day and have the ability to commit this type of crime. I think you have to have that somewhere inside of you," said Butler County Sheriff's Lt. Anthony Dwyer, who is heading the investigation of Ms. Durkin's murder.
Still, at least by outward appearances, Mr. Lawson seemed to care deeply about his children, authorities and acquaintances said.
Mr. Lawson, who previously had custody of his 10-year-old daughter, began living with his other two children at 216 Garfield St. -- the rundown house where police think Ms. Durkin was killed. Mr. Lawson's two younger children, ages 8 and 4, arrived at the Garfield Street home March 1, after Mr. Lawson's ex-wife "basically abandoned" them for two days, according to a court document.
Police wouldn't say whether they think any of the children were home during the slaying or dismemberment of Ms. Durkin, a 34-year-old drywall contractor who family members say was fighting a drug habit.Authorities haven't said how she met Mr. Lawson, nor have they released a motive for her slaying.
Until late May, more than a month after Ms. Durkin's torso was found along the Great Miami River in Hamilton, "we had no information leading to him (as a suspect)," said Middletown Police Maj. Greg Schwarber.
So the children continued to live with Mr. Lawson. "We had to deal with the information we had at hand, and he appeared to be a fit father," Maj. Schwarber said.
An order finalizing Mr. Lawson's custody of his children was stamped with a judge's signature on June 5, the same day police began searching the Garfield Street home for clues in Ms. Durkin's death. The custody change "was adopted because nobody filed an objection" to a magistrate's May 22 decision, said John House, a mediator in Butler County Domestic Relations Court.
Mr. Lawson apparently fled before authorities gathered enough evidence to charge him with Ms. Durkin's murder. He's since been charged and declared a federal fugitive.
His mother, Ellen Peck, 46, was arrested Sept. 1 after she and another relative led police to Ms. Durkin's buried body parts in Indiana and Preble County.
"We're doing better now that they've found the rest of Cheryl," Ms. Durkin's sister, Karla Edwards, 41, of Madison Township, said last week. "At least we don't have to sit here and wonder for the rest of our lives."
Ms. Edwards said she's confident authorities will find Mr. Lawson -- and she praised their tireless efforts in the investigation. Ms. Peck remains in jail on $1 million bond, facing two felony charges: obstructing justice and tampering with evidence.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lawson's children have been staying with his father, Emmit Lawson, on his farm in Warren County's Franklin Township. "Kids are saying terrible things to them on the school bus," Emmit Lawson said. "They're calling them killers."
Emmit Lawson declined to be interviewed further for this story. A lot of folks around town, particularly residents on streets where James and his mother lived, say they're afraid to talk publicly about James Lawson or their feelings about the case.
Another Garfield Street neighbor, 14-year-old Christopher Combs, said, "He was a neighborhood cool kind of guy."
He agreed with others' statements that Mr. Lawson acted differently when he was high. "He'd get stupid," Christopher said. "But he never did nothin' bad to me. He babysat me from when I was 6."
Christopher said neighborhood kids knew that if they needed a ride anywhere, James Lawson would give them a lift, maybe even on his motorcycle.
In the Rufus Street area where Ms. Peck lived in a rustic, treated-wood house with several junk cars on the lawn, neighbors are wary because they used to see James Lawson hanging around, said Aneisa Loveless, 30. "I'm not really afraid, but I wouldn't go to sleep with the doors unlocked," said Ms. Loveless, who has two sons, ages 11 and 13. "(James Lawson) being loose makes me want to watch my kids every five minutes now."
Ms. Loveless' mother, Peggy Fugate, has placed a metal pole so that it blocks her sliding-glass patio door from being opened. "I don't think he'll really come around here, but I thought it would be a good idea -- just in case," she said.
It's tough to go anywhere around Middletown where people aren't talking about "the torso case," said Jerry M. Bryant, a lawyer who has represented Mr. Lawson in a number of cases.
Attention is expected to grow this Saturday. The Fox TV show, America's Most Wanted, is scheduled to air a segment about it, Mike Molnar, a spokesman for the program, confirmed Monday.
"I'm very concerned about the publicity," Mr. Bryant said, adding that he doubts Mr. Lawson could get a fair trial in Middletown if he surrenders. "It really has created a circus-type atmosphere -- and most the of articles I've read have him tried, convicted and ready to hang."
During the decade they have been acquainted, Mr. Bryant said Mr. Lawson has always been courteous, compliant and honest with him.
Mr. Lawson reportedly last worked as a painter; he's done entry-level factory work for much of his life, former employers said. A court document in a child-support case involving Mr. Lawson stated he was fired from at least one of those jobs.
Although he describes Mr. Lawson as friendly, Mr. Bryant admits a number of people, including both of Mr. Lawson's ex-wives, told police he threatened to kill them.
But Mr. Bryant said he thinks Mr. Lawson was exaggerating and didn't really intend to kill anyone. "I know him," Mr. Bryant said.
Mr. Lawson "initially had a very hard life," Mr. Bryant said. He did poorly in school and dropped out of Middletown High School from September through November 1983.
That would have been around the time that he was caring for his mother, a close relative said, adding that Ms. Peck suffered a nervous breakdown during her contentious divorce from Emmit Lawson and needed help.
Records show James Lawson returned to Middletown High, but transferred to school in Temple City, Calif., in 1985. Officials there were unable to immediately locate his records; a relative said it's unclear whether he ever finished a high-school-level education.
Records also reveal that Mr. Lawson was arrested on a marijuana cultivation charge in 1993, and later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. In 1997, he was found guilty of drunken driving, leading some who knew him to claim he had a drug and alcohol problem.
Mr. Bryant offered this view on Mr. Lawson's behavior:
"I believe drugs and alcohol will cause people to do things . . . entirely out of character. Whether this is applicable to James Lawson remains to be seen."
