Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane announces that Eric M. Hawkins, 59, of Buffalo, was sentenced this morning before State Supreme Court Justice M. William Boller to 25 years to life in prison.
On Sunday, June 11, 2023, at approximately 9:30 p.m., the defendant stabbed the victim multiples times outside of a home on the first block of Connelly Avenue in the City of Buffalo. The victim, 39-year-old Glenn Ervin Drue, Jr., was taken by ambulance to ECMC where he later died from the injuries.
In January 2025, a jury found Hawkins guilty of one count of Murder in the Second Degree (Class “A-I” felony). Jurors rendered their decision after approximately three hours of deliberation following a three-day trial, convicting the defendant of the sole count of the indictment.
DA Keane commends Officer Stanley Honrada, Officer Gerard Gerry Wasilewski, Detective Sergeant Keith Fitzner and retired Detective Sergeant Carl Lundin of the Buffalo Police Department as well as the US Marshals Service for their work in this investigation.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney John P. Gerken, Jr. of the Homicide Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Daniel J. Morris of the Felony Trials Bureau.