When Justice Must Be Done

Ask any lawyer involved in the criminal justice system about cases that mark you for the rest of your life and they can tell you the name immediately.

One such case that I was involved in was the murder of Katy Hawelka in 1986. Unlike most of the cases I took, this was one in which I didn’t represent the defendant.

I represented the victim and her family.

Her mother came to our office in September of 1986 in the weeks following the murder of her daughter.

The monster who murdered her, Brian McCarthy, had been arrested and charged with her murder. Her mother wanted me to monitor the court proceedings and advocate for her daughter and the family to insure McCarthy didn’t escape being held responsible.

Katy was a 19 year-old second year student at Clarkson. She was a very kind, intelligent, talented and beautiful individual who would have contributed much to the world in life, had she been allowed to live.

On the night of August 28, 1986, she was beaten, raped and strangled by McCarthy in a horrific attack that must have seemed an eternity to her. He left her so badly injured and damaged that she was unrecognizable to her family. She lingered, suffering from those injuries, for several days in a Watertown, N.Y. hospital before succumbing from the beating.

McCarthy ultimately pled guilty to Murder in the Second Degree in St. Lawrence County Court and was sentenced to twenty-three years to life in the New York State Correctional System.

During his prosecution, Katy’s mother told me that she wouldn’t have wanted him put to death because she wanted him to have to think about what he had done to her daughter every day for the rest of his life.

In 2011, McCarthy became eligible for parole. His applications for release have been denied by the Parole Commissioners three times. He has had hearings in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Each time he has had a hearing Katy’s family has appeared and opposed his release. Thousands of people who knew her and didn’t know her have signed petitions opposing his release.

He is scheduled for another hearing on March 2nd of this year.

Katy’s family will be forced to relive this nightmare again.

I have read and reviewed the transcripts from McCarthy’s 2011, 2013 and 2015 parole hearings and have found he has lied multiple times to the board of Parole.

During the 2011 Board appearance McCarthy claimed to have attended a hockey game with Katy. He claimed to have met her on a walkway later that night and that they were both under the influence of alcohol and agreed to have consensual sex. He then claimed that she became angry and violent and attacked him because of his inability to perform sexually. He claimed to have hit her once and she died from striking the pavement. He denied strangling her.

His account of their encounter and her death is a complete fabrication.

McCarthy’s crime was a stranger to stranger encounter.

Katy Hawelka was a complete stranger to him and he was a complete stranger to her.

She did not attend a hockey game that evening with him nor was there a hockey game that night.

Walker Arena, where hockey is played, was filled with computers scheduled to be delivered to incoming students the following day. Katy had been out with friends that night, one of whom agreed to walk her home because of an ankle injury she had suffered. Regrettably he parted ways with her before she made it to her residence and that is when she encountered McCarthy.

During the course of the rape and assault, McCarthy struck her and kicked her while wearing his work boots. He repeatedly smashed her head into the wall of Walker Arena. That sound echoed throughout Walker Arena and was so loud that the security guards inside thought someone was trying to break in and went to investigate.

That was when they found her, badly beaten clinging to life.

While McCarthy claims to have been intoxicated by alcohol and drugs, professing amnesia about his actions and motivation, the Potsdam Police found him hiding nearby, covered with blood. He had the presence of mind to try and fabricate an account of being assaulted by another party and presented himself as a victim, along with Katy.

While he professes to think about her every day and has goals which include repairing the “hurt” he caused the “victim’s family”, it is obvious that he hasn’t given the victim any thought whatsoever.

Indeed, he doesn’t even know her name- repeatedly referring to her as “Kim Avadikian.”

Kim Avadikian was one of the security guards at Clarkson University who discovered Katy after McCarthy had beaten, raped and strangled her.

During the criminal court proceedings, Katy’s mother told me she didn’t want McCarthy executed because she wanted him to have to think about what he had done to her daughter every day for the rest of his life.

Clearly, he hasn’t thought about her at all.

During that same appearance, McCarthy lied to the Parole Board about having had a prior “intimate relationship” with her.

During his next appearance before a Parole Board in 2013, McCarthy tried to claim that his prior account of the assault being a single blow, was the product of a “blackout” although the police investigation revealed he attempted to portray himself as having been a victim of an assault evinces cognitive awareness and presence of mind on the night of the crime.

During his 2015 appearance, McCarthy finally admitted that he didn’t know Katy but, again, lied to the Parole Board, claiming he was unconscious when the police discovered him on the night of the attack.

While discussing his claim of rehabilitation, he was asked “Where does the victim fit in?” He replied “I was going to ask which victim, there is more than one. “ This exchange reveals a stunning and callous level of narcisstic self-absorption to the degree that he believes himself to be a victim.

In these three appearances before the Parole Board, McCarthy has repeatedly lied to the Board about the viciousness of his attack.

He has slandered Katy in death by continuing to claim they had a prior intimate relationship.

He has sought to minimize, rationalize and excuse his conduct by claiming to have been in an alcohol, drug induced state contrary to what the police investigation revealed.

For the past nineteen years, I was an Onondaga County Court Judge and an Acting New York State Supreme Court Justice, who presided over thousands of felony level criminal cases and the annual reviews of civilly committed sex offenders pursuant to Article 10 of the Mental Hygiene Law. Because I was a member of the State Judiciary, I was prohibited from commenting about McCarthy during his prior parole appearances. I retired from that position on December 30, 2015.

I now no longer have that restriction and plan to offer my opinion to the parole Board.

It’s not a difficult or complicated one to understand.

He remains an unreconstructed, un-rehabilitated sociopath, who is a danger to women everywhere.

I have never asked the readers of this blog to do any more than read, think about and hopefully enjoy what I have written.

If you would like to take a step toward keeping this monster in prison, then please go to the link to the petition that is just below last week’s post “Milestones” on this page and add your name to it.

If you would like to do a little more, write a letter to the Parole Board, addressing it to;

Senior Parole Officer
Marcy Correctional Facility
9000 Old River Road
P.O. Box 5000
Marcy, New York 13403-5000

It’s been thirty years since Katy Hawelka was murdered.

She should never be forgotten.

Brian McCarthy should never be forgotten either.