Family searches for justice in retrial of 1985 Hernando murder case
BROOKSVILLE — Closure has been hard to realize for Darlene Arnett, and her siblings.
Arnett’s mother, Vronzettie Cox, was found murdered in the trunk of a car in the Royal Highlands community in September 1985. Her body had begun to decompose when it was found, and Cox, who was strangled and raped, was placed in a closed casket at her funeral.
Paul Christopher Hildwin, left, hangs his head down as jurors give a guilty verdict against him for the first-degree murder of Vronzettie Cox. Seated beside Hildwin is his defense attorney Dan Lewan. The jury took only two hours to reach their verdict. FILE
Arnett said the grim facts of the case have continuously haunted her, her sister Darnell Long and brother Rodney Ickes, all of whom now live in Virginia.
The family’s grief was perpetuated in June, when the 1986 conviction of Paul Hildwin for Cox’s murder was overturned by a split Supreme Court of Florida decision, based on DNA evidence found on Cox’s underwear and a wash cloth. At the time of Cox’s murder, Hildwin was on parole for rape and attempted sodomy convictions in New York in 1979.
The DNA material found on Cox’s items belonged to her ex-boyfriend, William Haverty, currently serving a 20-year sentence in Florida on child sex-abuse charges; he is scheduled to be released from Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello on Dec. 24. The DNA was initially thought to be Hildwin’s.
At Hildwin’s 1986 trial, prosecutors said that semen and saliva found on Cox’ belongings was deposited by the person who committed the murder.
In its conclusion, state Supreme Court justices on the majority said that circumstantial evidence against Hildwin was “entirely discredited” and scientific evidence against him was “unreliable.”
The State Attorney’s Office has elected to retry Hildwin, who is off death row and now held at the Hernando County Jail. Attorneys in the case are scheduled to meet before Circuit Court Judge Stephen Toner in Brooksville on Oct. 3, court records show.
Arnett, 48, said she and other family members plan to attend the retrial.
“It’s always been really difficult, but it’s more difficult knowing that (Hildwin) gets another go-around,” Arnett said in a telephone interview. “I mean, really? It’s really hard to understand why.”
Arnett said that she does not believe Haverty is “a good guy,” but she doesn’t think he killed her mother. Because the couple had sex, Arnett doesn’t understand the significance of finding Haverty’s DNA on her mother’s underwear.
“Haverty had a solid alibi,” Arnett said. “His landlord was at his house and spoke to him around 9 a.m., and the murder happened around 10 a.m. He said Haverty’s car never left the driveway.”
Hildwin was linked to Cox after he cashed one of her checks the day she was believed to have been killed. He was also in possession of her checkbook and jewelry, items he said that he took when he heard Cox and Haverty fighting.
Hildwin said at his first trial that Cox and Haverty picked him up after his car broke down one morning. He said he left the vehicle with Cox’s items after fighting between Cox and Haverty escalated.
At Hildwin’s 1986 trial, prosecutors said that semen and saliva found on the wash cloth and panties was deposited by the person who committed the murder.
Tampa attorney Lyann Goudie will represent Hildwin at his retrial, along with attorneys Marie Parmer and Wade Whidden. Hildwin has battled a form of blood cancer while in prison, but Goudie said she believes he has been in remission for a couple of years.
“I’m sure he is grateful to be in the position he’s in now, but still very concerned because he’s still incarcerated,” Goudie said.
Hildwin also has been helped for years by The Innocence Project, a New York non-profit agency that assists inmates who hope to use DNA evidence to overturn their convictions.
Hildwin filed a motion to have his DNA tested in 2001, and the results excluded him as the donor of semen and saliva on Cox’s belongings.
Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney at The Innocence Project, said in June that it took an extraordinarily long time for the state Attorney General’s Office to agree to run DNA evidence through a national database.
“For nine years, we fought a battle with the Attorney General’s Office to take the simple step of running the DNA profile into the national database, which they refused to do until we got an order forcing them to do so,” she said.
Despite the state Supreme Court’s ruling, Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway, who will prosecute Hildwin, said the decision to retry him was not difficult.
“When you look at where the DNA evidence was found and how it got there, we feel there is still a reasonable likelihood of conviction at trial,” Ridgway said. “Had this (evidence) been presented to us initially, we would have sought an indictment and proceeded. There’s no reason not to.
“When you have sufficient evidence (for a conviction), you take the case to trial,” Ridgway said.
Meanwhile, Arnett and her siblings hope that Hildwin never walks out of prison.
“He’s had years and years to think of new stories,” she said. “Look at his pattern. He was serving time for raping and (attempting to sodomize) a woman and was let out early because the prison was over-populated.
“That’s when he murdered my mother.”
Information from Hernando Today archives was used in this report.
(352) 544-5283
