Arender tells chilling tale of small child’s murder

By Janet Jacobs

Editor’s Note: This article reports on the disturbing sexual assault and murder of a small child in Navarro County in 2007. Parts of this report are graphic in nature and may disturb readers.

On Friday, Shaun Earl Arender, a 22-year-old small-time thief who had spent more time in jail than out of it, confessed to the sexual assault and murder of 6-year-old Hanna Mack near Navarro Mills in the fall of 2007. Arender gave his confession in open court as part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole by District Judge James Lagomarsino.

Under questioning by District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, Arender testified that he and Kevin Wayne Anders, the live-in boyfriend of Dana Mack, Hanna’s mother, smoked marijuana and talked about sex, then took the girl into the garage next to the house, where she was choked into submission, sexually assaulted, and then hung from the rafters.

Arender was arrested two days after the murder on a burglary and possession charge, and it was while he was in jail that DNA evidence found on the small victim was linked to his DNA pattern in a state database. For the last two years, Arender has been kept in solitary confinement in the Navarro County jail under suicide watch. He tried to commit suicide at least three times.

On the stand, Arender unraveled a sickening tale of people on the edge of society, and the consequences for the vulnerable children in their midst.

His lawyer chalked the situation up to Arender’s own childhood, which included rape by a family member. Arender’s juvenile years were spent in and out of foster care and the Texas Youth Commission. By his early teens, he was in trouble with the law, mostly with petty theft and drugs. He worked occasionally for an uncle who did construction, but it wasn’t steady work, and he continued to get into trouble.

On Sept. 9, 2007, he and his pregnant girlfriend and some friends went swimming at Navarro Mills and then drove into Corsicana to buy drugs. After returning to the trailer where Arender lived with his aunt, he had sex with his girlfriend then went outside to smoke marijuana.

As he smoked, he walked down the street about two blocks and ran into Kevin Wayne Anders outside the house where Anders lived with Dana Mack and her three daughters. At 6, Hanna was the youngest.

Anders recognized him, Arender said, and called him over. They’d first met in 2005 while both were in the county jail. They both liked to draw, Arender said.

On the warm September night they sat on the front porch and smoked pot and talked, at first just about anything, and then about sex, Arender said. Anders allegedly asked Arender if he wanted to make pornography, or to star in videos. Arender said Anders then brought up the fact that he lived with three “step-daughters” and they were “cute.”

“It was just a conversation, it lasted about two hours, I guess,” Arender said. “We talked about me being in prison and what kinds of things happened in prison. We talked a lot about sex, I guess,” Arender said.

After that, and more drugs, Anders offered Arender a soda, and when he went indoors he came out with Hanna Mack, who was holding a Coke.

“Was he carrying her?” Thompson asked.

“No,” Arender said.

With the child and Anders on the top front step, and Arender on the bottom step, Arender continued to smoke while Anders continued to talk about sex.

“He said she’s fixing to start school and she was going to have a lot of guys over at the house, knocking on the door,” Arender said.

Arender said that while they were sitting there Anders mumbled something to the girl, who said “no,” and then he mumbled something else, and she said “it hurts,” and when he turned around Anders had his hands in Hanna’s pants, and the girl screamed.

“She screamed or made a loud noise and Kevin reached up and grabbed her by the throat and jumped up and told me to come on before somebody sees us and went over to the garage,” Arender said.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” Thompson demanded.

“I don’t know, when I seen it happening it was, like, I didn’t know. It was like a short circuit. I didn’t know what to do. It seemed more like a dream than something that was going on,” Arender said.

Arender said Anders choked Hanna into unconsciousness then put her on the couch and urged Arender to have sex with the girl while he watched.

Arender claims not to have raped the child, however, Thompson pointed out that Arender’s DNA evidence said otherwise.

“Maybe you should talk to your specialists,” Arender shot back.

Arender said that both of them molested the girl before she began struggling again and tried to scream. Anders silenced her by choking her.

“Whose idea was it to hang her?” Thompson asked.

“Sort of both of ours,” Arender said, adding that Anders told him of someone in his family who had hanged himself in a suicide.

Then, Arender contradicted himself by testifying “I didn’t come up with it, I just went along with it and started helping out,” he said.

After more details, Thompson asked if Arender looked at the girl after they had hanged her from the rafters.

“I looked at her feet,” Arender said. “I couldn’t look at her face.”

Arender said that it was Anders’ idea to not communicate with one another until after the investigation was completed. Arender said he got home about 6 a.m. on Sept. 10, 2007. He smoked another joint, then he had to get ready to go to Waxahachie for a meeting with his parole officer. Hanna’s body was found that morning by her mother, and it was Anders who made a disjointed call to 9-1-1. He began the call by saying that he was asleep.

On Sept. 13, Anders was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. On Sept. 23, Arender was arrested and charged with burglary and possession of marijuana. On Sept. 26, the county investigators had gotten the DNA evidence back which pointed to Arender as the offender.

At the end of the testimony, Thompson asked Arender if there was anything he could say to help people understand, and Arender hesitated before saying: “I guess not.”

By pleading guilty and foregoing a capital murder trial, Arender saved the county an estimated $350,000 to $1 million, according to Thompson.

Before agreeing to the plea bargain, however, Thompson said he consulted with the family, investigators and local child advocates.

Attending the hearing in the courtroom on the second floor of the Navarro County Courthouse were members of the Mack family, along with neighbors and more than 20 courthouse employees, sheriff’s office deputies, and child advocates.

Dana Mack, Hanna’s mother, left in tears soon after Arender took the stand. Sandy Runion, Hanna’s grandmother, left shortly thereafter.

Afterwards, the family agreed not to watch the news or read any news accounts of the testimony.

“We were in agreement with the decision to give him life,” Sandy Runion said. “We didn’t want to go through a trial. It would be too painful.”

Neighbors and friends agreed that the trial would have been like reliving the murder over again. However, they were horrified at the revelations of Anders’ involvement in the crime.

Rhonda Guthrie and Pam Gray said they didn’t believe Arender’s statement that he hardly knew Anders. The two men had relatives in common, although it wasn’t a close relationship, both said.

“I just want full justice,” Guthrie added. “There’s more to this story than is being told by this young man in there.”

Arender’s lawyers, Kerri Anderson Donica, Mark Griffith and Monica Bishop met with Arender after the hearing, then Griffith and Bishop held a short press conference outside the jail.

Griffith said he hopes that Anders is indicted on capital murder charges, adding that his client is ready to testify against Anders.

“Absolutely,” he said. “You can put the dots together. He’s currently in the Navarro County jail for possession of child pornography.”

Arender’s history, he pointed out, includes minor thefts and burglaries, not assault or murder. Griffith and Bishop also said their client is remorseful, although he didn’t apologize on the witness stand Friday.

“He probably didn’t apologize because he didn’t want to minimize what happened,” Bishop said.

The act of pleading guilty and subjecting himself to being questioned in court was a way of purging himself, Griffith said. His client held nothing back, and allowed any questions to be asked, he said.

“He said to me once, ‘how could an apology ever justify what I did?’ and I said ‘Shaun, I’m not sure that it could.”

Arender will be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Tuesday, Griffith said.

Dana Mack’s other two daughters were removed from her custody after Hanna’s murder. They’re now in foster care and doing well, said Marissa Gonzales with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Their mother is allowed regular visits.

Kevin Wayne Anders remains in jail, charged with possession of child pornography, in lieu of a $100,000 bond. He has not yet been charged in connection with the Mack murder. Investigators are still working on that case, Thompson said.

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