Opinion ID: 2382114
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Motive

Text: Statements of Robert Hanson, the victim's brother, indicated Malloy had motive to commit the murder. When police first interviewed Hanson at 3:30 a.m. on May 6, he told police that his other sister, Cynthia Butler, had given the victim two or three diamond rings for safe-keeping because she feared Malloy would steal them and use them to support his drug habit. He also was clearly of the opinion that Butler could not have committed the murder. Evidence also revealed that Malloy had stolen from several family members shortly before the events of this case took place. Pawn shop receipts verified that he had pawned jewelry, VCRs, CD players, and stereos. He borrowed $3,000 from his grandmother, which he then used for drugs. Subsequently, but before the victim's murder, Robert Hanson took over his mother's finances and gave her only a small allowance in part to prevent her from continuing to finance Malloy's drug use. Thus, a source of Malloy's drug money had been cut off shortly before the murder. Butler's mother, Marie Butler, also testified that she alerted counsel to a possible relationship between Sara Foulk's death and that of the victim. Sara Foulk was the girlfriend of Sean Malloy. Police reports revealed that Foulk had been murdered on April 24, 1990, eleven days before Diana Butler's death. Sara Foulk's mother testified at the post-conviction hearing that Malloy had been threatened because he owed drug money and had been told that if he did not pay, his girlfriend would be killed.