Lawrence Singleton guilty of first-degree murder

Friday, Feb. 20, 1998 | 2:37 a.m.

Singleton could face the death penalty for killing Roxanne Hayes, a 31-year-old mother of three, in his living room on Feb. 19, 1997.

Singleton, 70, showed no reaction when the verdict was read less than four hours after jurors began deliberating.

The children and longtime boyfriend of the victim sat in the second row of the courtroom. Her boyfriend, Clifton Tyson, breathed heavily.

Mary Vincent, the California hitchhiker whom Singleton was convicted of mutilating, planned to testify during the sentencing phase, which was to start Monday.

Earlier Friday, prosecutor Jay Pruner wrapped up arguments by mocking Singleton's testimony that he and Ms. Hayes were struggling for a knife when she somehow stabbed herself.

"If you are to believe Lawrence Singleton, this lunatic Roxanne Hayes ... became enraged and threatened to decapitate him," Pruner said in his closing arguments.

Singleton testified Thursday that he and Ms. Hayes were fighting for control of a knife when it plunged seven times into her face, chest and stomach. Pruner said Singleton's testimony that Ms. Hayes remained silent each of the times the knife entered her body is not credible.

"If you are to look for credible evidence, don't look at the defense's testimony," Pruner said.

At the start of its presentation, the defense said the wounds were inflicted during a "spontaneous eruption of emotion" and that Singleton never meant to kill Ms. Hayes.

"We have never attempted ... for even one moment to say that Larry Singleton was not responsible for what happened to Roxanne Hayes and I'm not going to insult your intelligence by doing that now," defense attorney Jill Menadier said. "(But) Lawrence Singleton never at any time made a decision to kill Roxanne Hayes."

Singleton told jurors he was depressed, drunk and over-medicated when he decided to pick up Ms. Hayes, a prostitute whom he had met several months earlier.

The retired merchant seaman was convicted of raping Ms. Vincent, chopping off her arms with an ax and leaving her for dead on the side of a road in 1978. She survived to testify against him.

When he was released on parole in 1987, several California towns refused to take him in amid police and prosecutors' predictions he would try to kill again.

He returned to his native Tampa.