Four years after retired Rock Hill police officer’s death, a murder trial is set
Four years ago this month, retired Rock Hill police Lt. Larry Vaughan was found dead in his downtown apartment.
He died across the street from where he spent 30 years at the Rock Hill Police Department.
Evan Robert Hawthorne, accused of killing Vaughan after an argument between the two at a downtown bar, was arrested on a murder charge just hours after Vaughan’s body was found. Hawthorne has pleaded not guilty.
But the case has never gone to trial. Spartanburg County prosecutors had to take over the case because York County prosecutors knew Vaughan from years of criminal cases. Then COVID shut down courts for about a year, and there were delays over scheduling that further delayed a jury trial.
Yet now, court officials say Hawthorne’s case is set for trial Aug. 18 at the Moss Justice Center in York.
Vaughan’s family has waited four years for the criminal case to be heard in court.
“It’s horrible — it’s a nightmare you can’t wake up from,” said Vaughan’s sister, Lori Williams. “If there is any justice left in this country, I hope Larry gets it.”
Vaughan found dead at home
Police found Vaughan dead on July 23, 2021, at his apartment at the corner of Main Street and Dave Lyle Boulevard in a building separated from the city police department by Black Street and a parking lot.
Vaughan, known as “LV,” had just left the force at age 54 as a lieutenant a few months before after a career where he rose to command-staff level roles as a detective supervisor, SWAT leader, and more.
Because Vaughan was a former employee, Rock Hill police asked the York County Sheriff’s Office to investigate. Deputies soon afterward charged Hawthorne with murder. Investigators stated in court documents officers had video surveillance and witness statements to charge Hawthorne.
The two men had both been drinking the day before at Tattooed Brews, a Main Street bar, according to previous court hearings and court documents. Hawthorne allegedly went to Vaughan’s apartment after Vaughan left the bar.
Hawthorne had blood on him and his clothes when he left Vaughan’s building, prosecutors said in 2022 at a bond hearing.
Prosecutors with the 7th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in Spartanburg confirmed the Aug. 18 trial date in York County in an email to The Herald, but did not comment further.
Defense: Hawthorne acted in self-defense
Hawthorne is also a former law enforcement officer. He was a sheriff’s deputy in neighboring Chester County who was fired in 2019.
He has been free on $250,000 bail with an electronic monitor since December 2022. His two defense attorneys from Columbia are among South Carolina’s most well-known lawyers. Jack Swerling has been a defense lawyer for 55 years and taken dozens of murder cases to trial. Hawthorne’s other lawyer, Todd Rutherford, is a longtime S.C. House of Representatives member with more than two decades of trial experience.
Swerling told The Herald Tuesday that Hawthorne has pleaded not guilty since the beginning of the case and continues to do so.
“He was defending himself,” Swerling said of the 2021 incident.
Swerling did not comment further on the pending trial.
In a previous court hearing in 2022, Rutherford said Vaughan’s blood alcohol level was .27 — more than three times the .08 legal limit for driving a car in South Carolina.
S.C. Circuit Court Judge Keith Kelly of Spartanburg is expected to hear pre-trial motions in court the week before the trial starts, according to Swerling and Amy Goulding, a spokesperson for the prosecution.
Separate civil lawsuit
Last year, Vaughan’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit in York County civil court against Hawthorne and the bar. The complaint was amended and refiled in May of this year, records show.
Lawyers for Hawthorne and the bar filed responses to the lawsuit in May and June of this year that deny claims of liability for Vaughan’s death.
No trial date has been set for the civil case.
The criminal trial and civil case are separate.
This story was originally published July 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Four years after retired Rock Hill police officer’s death, a murder trial is set."
