Lawlor found guilty of first-degree murder

    BRIGHTON – Like most reckless crimes, the murder of George Lindeboom produced evidence by the literal truckload. And if Evan Lawlor had attempted to deny that Lindeboom died at his hands, prosecutors would have had little trouble proving beyond a reasonable doubt that they charged the right man.

Evan Lawlor

    But Lawlor, 26, insisted that he strangled Lindeboom because he snapped – because a sexual encounter with the 67-year-old triggered traumatic memories of sexual abuse from Lawlor’s troubled childhood.
    For the prosecution, the issue wasn’t that Lawlor couldn’t let go of his past. It was the fact that Lawlor didn’t let go – holding a brutal chokehold on Lindeboom for three to five minutes after Lindeboom faded from consciousness.
    It took the jury less than two hours to reach the conclusion that Lawlor’s actions constituted intent after deliberation and convicted him of first-degree murder.
    This conviction – along with guilty verdicts for robbery of an at-risk person, theft over $20,000, violation of the Pawnbrokers’ Act, and tampering with physical evidence – will likely result in a life sentence for Lawlor.
    Lawlor’s public defenders never argued the chronology of events nor the outline of basic facts in the prosecution’s case. In contrast, public defender Rachel Lanzen focused her opening arguments, cross examination and closing arguments on the issues of mind set and behavior to cast doubt on the robbery motive the prosecution had put forward.
    Lawlor was the only witness called for the defense. And in wrenching detail, Lawlor testified on the events that led to Lindeboom’s death last year and the parallels to experiences in the defendant’s childhood.

Defendant describes first encounter with Lindeboom
    It was a cold January Saturday night, when Lawlor walked out of a Brighton bar after a long evening attempting to drink away the regret and memories of his recent fight and breakup with his girlfriend.
    Lawlor wasn’t headed for his residence as he walked through the streets of Brighton. Like many stages in Lawlor’s difficult life, the young man had no place to call home. Since his breakup, Lawlor crashed at multiple locations with friends and coworkers, and his clothes and belongings were gathered and shuffled around in a few cardboard boxes.
    On this night, Lawlor intended to use a key to get into his place of employment and sleep inside the Brighton pizzeria before his shift the next day.
    But Lawlor had caught the eye of an older stranger back at the bar. Lindeboom had watched Lawlor drunkenly wrestle his way through several albums of karaoke songs earlier that night. When Lawlor went up to the bar for more beer, the two men exchanged cordial words as Lindeboom sat at his regular spot at the watering hole.
    About a block away from the bar, Lindeboom pulled up in his truck and asked Lawlor if he could use a ride – and where the young man was headed.
    Lindeboom offered his own apartment as a place to crash, and a few more beers to sweeten the deal, and Lawlor accepted.
    What happened next at the apartment would involve intimate details that Lawlor tried to conceal even more than Lindeboom’s death, which was still two days away.

Regret and shame over ‘hookup’
    In the video-taped police interview of Lawlor, detectives scarcely introduced themselves before Lawlor confessed to killing Lindeboom.
    But Brighton police have to interrogate Lawlor for three more hours before he admitted to what happened back at Lindeboom’s apartment on the first night.
    “We had some beers, and I slept on his sofa … We didn’t have sex. I’m not down like that,” Lawlor originally told detectives.
    But the police knew otherwise because an exultant Lindeboom told friends before he died about having sex with a handsome young man he met, and how the two were planning a second date.
    When Lawlor finally conceded to police that the sexual encounter happened, he said he lied because of shame.
    “I wanted to throw up,” Lawlor said of his feelings the next day. “I was disgusted. I’m not gay … and this guy was old enough to be my great-grandfather.”
    Lawlor told police that despite this disgust, he returned to that apartment two days later, but this time to make a point of rejecting Lindeboom’s advances.
    When the two were on the sofa watching TV and drinking beers, Lindeboom rubbed Lawlor’s thigh.
    “I pushed his hand away, and said ‘I’m not down with that,’” Lawlor said, describing his actions as firm but not angry.
    When Lindeboom tried to rub his thigh again, Lawlor said he snapped.
    Lawlor described his next actions: he stood quietly, removed his shirt and wrapped it around his right arm, crept behind Lindeboom, and grabbed him in a chokehold.
    Lawlor locked the hold with his left hand, dropped back on Lindeboom’s bed, bringing the older man down with him. Lawlor said he wrapped his legs around Lindeboom to prevent being kicked, and at times, swatted away Lindeboom’s arms as the man struggled.
    This struggle would have lasted for only eight to 13 seconds, according to Dr. Michael Arnall, who performed the autopsy on Lindeboom.
    Lawlor’s defense argued that Lindeboom’s advances reminded Lawlor of abuse he suffered when he was 10 years old at the hands of a trusted, older family friend.
    But the prosecution successfully argued to the jury that regardless of the prior trauma, Lawlor’s actions still displayed intent after deliberation.
    Lawlor is scheduled for sentencing March 14.
    
Additional reporting by Kevin Denke