Trial testimony: She saw her uncle stab her brother with a butcher knife

Tonya Lawson testified Wednesday that she saw her uncle stab her brother with a butcher knife in the head and chest.

Her uncle, Leon Springer, 49, is on trial in Houston County Superior Court on murder and related charges in the death of 44-year-old Shaun Lawson of Macon.

Springer and Lawson got into an argument in the early-morning hours of Sept. 27 of last year at a West Houston Road home Springer shared with his mother. Lawson died on the way to Houston Medical Center.

Family and friends had gathered earlier the previous day at the Warner Robins Recreation Center on Watson Boulevard to celebrate the 90th birthday of Springer’s mother and then the celebration moved to her Kathleen home and into the next morning.

Springer does not deny stabbing Lawson, who was his nephew, said Russell Walker, his Perry attorney.

“He (Springer) was provoked and he stabbed him in the heat of passion,” Walker said. “But it wasn’t murder.”

Tonya Lawson testified that she was not aware of an argument between the two men over a drink.

“I just couldn’t imagine that it was about a cup of liquor,” Lawson said.

Lawson testified that her brother had left the Kathleen home and then come back to the house to get his things when he was attacked by their uncle.

“He walked back to go get his bag and then my uncle ran out of the kitchen and stabbed him in his head and then he stabbed him in his chest,” she said.

Her brother fell on his back in the living room floor. Blood poured from his stab wounds.

Sitting just a few feet away on the couch, Lawson said she immediately jumped up and started dialing 911 while positioning herself over her brother.

“I just tried to protect Shaun,” she said.

She said her uncle was behind her cursing and wishing her brother dead.

“He was in full rage. I’d never seen my uncle like that,” Lawson said.

Walker pointed out several inconsistencies in her testimony on the stand and her written and video-taped statements to authorities.

Lawson said she was traumatized by what she had witnessed and couldn’t remember what all she had said that morning to authorities. But she told jurors she was certain what she was telling them on the stand was accurate.

Other witnesses testified that Shaun Lawson baited and picked on Springer throughout the birthday celebration.

McDonald Lyon testified that he saw Lawson several times start dancing between Springer and whomever he was dancing with at the recreation center.

Deatria Green told jurors that Lawson repeatedly cursed Springer within his hearing at the home. She also recounted how Lawson had tried to take Springer’s drink from him.

Springer poured the drink on the floor rather than let Lawson take it from him, and Lawson stood on the mop when Springer tried to clean up the spill, Green said.

Lawson was “sloppy drunk” that morning, she said.

Neither Lyon nor Green saw the stabbing.

Minnie Lee Harris testified that she had heard that her brother, who is Springer, and Lawson, her nephew, had been fighting over a cup of liquor.

She recalled several incidents in which she said Lawson had bullied Springer, including trying to throw her brother out of a window once.

“When he’s drunk, I know he liked to pick on Leon,” Harris said.

Testimony is expected to continue Thursday morning in the trial before Judge Katherine K. Lumsden. Closing arguments and instructions from the judge are also expected before jurors begin deliberations.

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Trial testimony: She saw her uncle stab her brother with a butcher knife."