Accused killer Henderson wants trial moved:
The defense attorneys for Richard Henderson Jr. are trying to get the trial moved. Henderson bludgeoned his family to death Thanksgiving Day 2005 with a lead pipe.
So defense attorneys Carolyn Schlemmer and Franklin Roberts have requested a change of venue for their client’s murder trial, set for next month.
“I don’t feel it can be held here,” Schlemmer said Wednesday. “There has been too much publicity, too much connecting him to other cases and there is just no way we’d get a fair trial.”
And Henderson himself has this little gem…
“Extensive publicity has caused me hardship at the jail,” states an affidavit signed by Henderson last month. “The pretrial publicity has portrayed me as guilty to four counts of murder in the first degree.”
A lot of the pre-trial publicity Henderson brought upon himself. Let’s not forget the letter that he sent to the Bradenton Herald. If you act like a murderous psychopath people may think you are.
Let’s also not forget that he basically confessed to the crime but as expected the defense attorneys are trying to get that thrown out.
In another motion filed Wednesday, Schlemmer said she wants Henderson’s statements to police suppressed and any evidence seized from him on Nov. 27, 2005, to be ruled inadmissible at trial.
She says the evidence was illegally obtained as a result of an unlawful stop by Deputy Rodney Norris, with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
Norris, with his gun drawn, stopped Henderson as a possible suspect in the 4900 block of U.S. 301, according to the motion.
Henderson initially told deputies his name was Jason. But he fit the description of the suspect in the slayings, and Norris arrested him.
Norris found a glass pipe with marijuana residue in his left pocket, according to sheriff’s reports.
Norris did not have a “founded suspicion” that Henderson had committed, was committing or was about to commit a violation of the law, according to the motion.
What are the police supposed to do?
Officer: Dispatch, we have a male fitting the description of a fugitive wanted for murder. Moving in to apprehend.
Dispatch: Negative, wait for subject to do something “suspicious”.
“Founded suspicion” my ass. What if police didn’t approach him and he killed somebody else? How well do you think that would have gone over with the public?
A hearing for these ridiculous requests will be held on June 22nd.
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