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Husband to be charged in wife's death
Man was wounded in shootout with deputies, highway patrol officers
Journal Graphic by Nicholas Weir
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Published: January 13, 2009
MOUNT AIRY - Deonna Lynn Hiatt finished her shift at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Wal-Mart in Elkin and should have stopped at the babysitter's home to pick up her 17-month-old girl and 7-month-old boy.
But no one heard from her.
Hours later, as Surry County sheriff's deputies were investigating a reported breaking and entering, they found Hiatt in the cab of her Silverado pickup. She had been shot in the head, and her legs were bound with a leather jacket.
Hiatt, 19, died yesterday morning at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and her estranged husband, Christopher Scott Hiatt, 26, was arrested yesterday morning after a shootout with sheriff's deputies and N.C. Highway Patrol officers.
Christopher Hiatt was wounded in the shooting. He will be charged with first-degree murder, Surry County Sheriff Graham Atkinson said.
Ronald Wood, Deonna Hiatt's grandfather, said that his family began to worry about 9 p.m. when the babysitter called them.
"My wife goes down and picks the babies up, and she calls Wal-Mart," Wood said.
The store's employees told Diane Wood, her grandmother, that the pickup was gone.
She called 911 to report Hiatt missing.
About the same time, dispatchers got a call about a breaking and entering at Hiatt Asphalt at 208 Dusty Lane, just outside the Mount Airy city limits.
When officers arrived about 10:40 p.m., they heard someone running into the woods. A Silverado truck was parked in the lot. They found Deonna Hiatt inside, injured and unresponsive.
"When my wife told me the sheriff's department located her … it just gutted me," said Ronald Hiatt, who had helped his wife raise Deonna. "You just don't know how I'm hurt."
The manhunt for Christopher Hiatt began at daylight yesterday when authorities identified him as a person of interest in the shooting and began looking for him. They also told area residents.
"They called and let us know what was going on and told us to come in and close the doors," said Clifton Jessup, who lives nearby.
Several residents called 911 with sightings of Hiatt in the neighborhood.
Shortly before 11 a.m. an elderly man called 911 and said that someone was banging on his door and that it might be Hiatt.
Within minutes deputies and highway patrol officers arrived at the house off Sable Lane, about a mile away from the asphalt company.
As they tried to arrest him, Hiatt reached into his pocket, pulled out a handgun and started firing at the officers. Two deputies and two highway patrol officers fired back, wounding Hiatt.
Hiatt was taken to Northern Hospital of Surry County and then to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The extent of his injuries is not known.
There are now two investigations, Atkinson said. Sheriff's deputies are investigating the homicide at the paving business, which belonged to Hiatt's family. The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the shooting of Hiatt, which is standard procedure any time an officer is involved in a shooting.
Ronald Wood said that his granddaughter married Hiatt about a year ago. The couple was living with them in Lowgap. When the couple separated about a month ago, Deonna Hiatt remained at her grandparents' house and Christopher Hiatt left.
Hiatt was the father of the little boy but not the girl, Wood said.
He was on probation for possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, violating vehicle registration, and violating safety inspection. In 2004, he had been convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, felony breaking and entering, and larceny over $100. In 2003, he was convicted of breaking and entering in vehicles, larceny and resisting an officer.
Deonna Hiatt was going to school full time at Surry Community College, Wood said. She was in her second year of studying to be a paralegal and had dreams of attending a four-year college, then law school.
"She was very talented," Wood said. "Until you lose a child, nobody can explain that. It's a hurt that takes everything out of you."
■ Sherry Youngquist can be reached in Mount Airy at 336-789-9338 or at syoungquist@wsjournal.com.
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