Tag: Richard Edgar Henderson Jr.

(Again this was written up yesterday but I took last night off.)

Henderson ‘normal’ after deaths:

More testimony in the trial of Richard Henderson Jr. This time let’s hear from his grandfather.

Loyal Stringer told jurors their grandson said he was taking a girlfriend home. He testified he appeared “normal,” but the girlfriend appeared scared and had “little color in her face.”

Henderson, before he drove off, told his grandparents not to go to the house because his parents were fighting “real bad.”

Again that doesn’t sound like an insane person to me.

Now some testimony from his friends…

More testimony from Nicole J. Russell and Zach Anderson – two friends of Henderson Jr. – indicated they had previously seen Henderson take Xanex and smoke marijuana.

Russell also said she had seen him the day after the killings and that he told her he was going to Mexico.

The day before and after the killings, Anderson testified, he saw Henderson Jr. at a friend’s house. Henderson, he said, appeared normal and “in touch with reality.”

If he appeared normal after slaughtering his entire family he must be one heartless S.O.B.

So far it doesn’t look like the insanity defense is going really well.

Sides come out firing on Day One of Henderson trial:

The trial of Richard Henderson Jr. opened yesterday. Henderson is accused of killing his entire family on Thanksgiving 2005.

The defense, of course, is pursuing an insanity defense…

But Franklin Roberts, one of Henderson’s court-appointed attorneys, told the jury a different story as he outlined his client’s defense. He contended the slayings in the family’s Myakka City mobile home were a tragedy brought on by Henderson Jr.’s severe mental illness.

“The horrible act of someone who was insane at the time it was committed,” Roberts said of Henderson, charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his father, Richard Sr.; mother, Jeaneane; grandmother, June; and younger brother, Jacob.

As Henderson occasionally jotted notes, Roberts described him as a man with a troubled youth full of drug abuse, suicide attempts and self-mutilation.

“Early in life, something was wrong,” Roberts said. “He had trouble keeping up in school . . . was disruptive in class. He is not someone who simply at one moment in time – suddenly exploded.”

Doctors will take the stand, Roberts said, and testify Henderson was insane when he killed his family.

But just as the prosecution asked how can Henderson be insane when he did this?

Henderson, while playing video games with his 11-year-old brother, took a metal pipe, struck him on the head and pushed the boy out a window. Then, in separate rooms, Henderson attacked his 82-year-old grandmother, his father, 48, and his mother, 42, killing each with “lethal amount of force” to their heads.

Sandy Stringer, Henderson’s other grandmother, called the home for her daughter, Jeaneane, on the night of the killings.

But Henderson Jr. answered instead.

Lying, he said that his mom was in the shower and would soon go to bed.

The day after the killings, Iten said, Henderson took his parents’ van, picked up his girlfriend and her friend and the three spent the next two nights in an Ellenton hotel. There, he told his girlfriend that he had killed people. But he lied about who, Iten said. He said he had killed his ex-wife, Brittany Wilde, and then killed his grandmother after she walked in on the attack.

He also later told friends he planned to head for Mexico, Iten said.

If he was insane he would have told his girlfriend that he killed Snap, Crackle, and Pop and was running away to Crunchland. (If he did kill Snap, Crackle, and Pop wouldn’t that make him a cereal killer?)

Henderson isn’t insane he’s just a cold-blooded killer.

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.

Henderson hopes for death in letter:

Richard Henderson Jr. is currently awaiting trial in Florida for bludgeoning his family to death on Thanksgiving Day 2005. Before that, he was in trouble for plotting to shoot up his school. He wrote the following letter to the Bradenton Herald…

As for my case im happy to be closing in on the day i’ll know where my future lies. As for if I get the Death instead of life or possibly something else, Great, ill be happy. Id rather get Death then life so I don’t have to witness the schemes and abuse of Authority the State lives by. As for my so called Family, let me make this clear. I don’t give a damn what they think, they say they know me how can that be if I only saw them 7 times in my life, to hell with them, I want them to know if I do get the death penality I will haunt their dreams and forever taint the blood of our Family. The way I see it, it’s their fault, if someone could of got me help instead of gossiping maybe my family be alive, maybe I could of had a normal life,” he wrote. “But no, everyone wants to talk, to judge. Find a way to live my life, to do all I did, to fell all my pain then you can judge me. How many Virginia tech massacers, how many columbines, how many Ross’s, Davis’s, Henderson’s is it gonna take to show kid’s are not being properly raised/helped/counsaled like they need to be. The Guilt of the crimes lies in the so called innocent, we were just the puppets that released the evil society breeds. You want Justice, you want us to feel pain, our whole lives have been pain. Me being in here with no friends, no family, just guilt, that’s pain. Just keep gossiping, keep . . . cause pain is coming to a place called home. Let’s see how you handle it.

First off if he wants death I say no problem. To me, it sounds like he’s trying to pull a Susan Smith. She begged for a death sentence and they gave her a life sentence. Personally, I don’t think Henderson wants any part of a death sentence. I think he’s bluffing and I hope the jury calls him on that bluff.

Secondly, I love how Henderson pulls the old “blame society” crap. Society didn’t cause him to kill his family. Only Henderson caused that. No one in this society is owed anything. The only thing that I hope is owed to Henderson is a quick trial and a death sentence.

Manatee murder suspects to undergo brain scans:

This is a somewhat interesting article about how defense attorneys are trying to use PET scans in order to find a medical defense for their clients. In this case specifically, one Richard Henderson Jr. who as you may recall, slaughtered his entire family on Thanksgiving…

BRADENTON – Three men, each accused of first-degree murder, received a judge’s consent for brain scans Thursday.

Manatee County court officials scheduled one hearing on several motions for four men accused in separate, unrelated murder cases – Clifford Davis, 19, Richard Henderson Jr., 20, Darrell Mitchell, 36, and Blaine Ross, 23.

If convicted, each defendant could be sentenced to death.

Lawyers for Davis, Henderson, and Mitchell requested the procedure, known as PET scans. Ross has already been tested.

If any of the defendants are convicted, results from the positron emission tomography scan could be used as evidence during the sentencing phase of a trial, said Assistant Public Defender Carolyn DaSilva, who along with Assistant Public Defender Steven Schaefer is representing the three men.

“We have to do everything to prepare for the penalty phase,” DaSilva said. “It doesn’t mean we’ll get there.”

A doctor hired by the defense lawyers said the scans were necessary for him to complete his evaluation of the defendants, according to court records.

The scan, commonly used to detect cancer and brain and other neurological disorders, has become a popular tool for defense lawyers, said Charles Rose, a professor at the Stetson University law school.

The procedure, which costs about $2,000-$3,000, involves injecting a person with a radioactive substance containing glucose, and using a machine shaped like a doughnut to scan and detect the body’s reaction to the substance, according to medical experts.

In patients with certain brain disorders, the machine tracks the spot and the rate at which the glucose metabolizes, said Dr. Eric Cotton, a radiologist at National PET Scan in St. Petersburg, which is where Davis, Henderson and Mitchell will be tested.

The information, which the center sends to an expert in California to be interpreted, could be used to support diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and tumors, Cotton said.

How ironic would it be if they found a tumor in Henderson? Then they’d have to race to execute him before the tumor got him?

Evidence is in pawn shop:

For those of you who may not remember, Richard Henderson Jr. was a 20-year-old man who bludgeoned his family to death on Thanksgiving 2005 and was previously convicted of a school shooting plot in 2001. More information on him can be found here.

Some of the evidence the state could use for its case that Richard Henderson Jr. of Myakka City killed his family is being held in an unusual spot: a local pawn shop.

Authorities say Henderson pawned a TV and videogame console at Value Pawn on U.S. 41 south of Bradenton the day after he bludgeoned his parents, grandmother and brother to death on Thanksgiving Day last year.

And a recent court order means the pawn shop will have to continue holding the items until after the trial concludes.

Authorities photographed the items and would likely have released them to the owners — if any of the owners had survived, said Manatee County sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow.

“Since the stuff belonged to people who are dead, we just want to keep it for the trial to show that he did this,” Bristow said. “Whether or not it’s ever brought into the courtroom, I don’t know.”

Henderson speaks at hearing:

Richard Henderson Jr., the Florida 20-year-old accused of bludgeoning his family to death on Thanksgiving Day, spoke out in court yesterday against the advice of his attorney…

“I have something to say,” Henderson blurted out, to the surprise of his public defender, Steven Schaefer, who advised him to keep quiet. Henderson insisted, and Schaefer let him speak.

“I want to plead guilty and get this over with,” Henderson said. He was dressed in a jail-issued blue jump suit and shackled at the wrists and feet. A dozen bailiffs stood by.

He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Man pleads not guilty to 4 deaths:

Say what now?

Yesterday, a grand jury handed down a four-count indictment on Richard Henderson Jr. for first-degree murder. Henderson previously confessed to the crimes.

Then Assistant Public Defender Carolyn DaSilva entered a plea of not guilty. Again, I say, “huh?”

I realize that they are probably going to try an insanity defense with Henderson, but I think it’s an extreme long shot.

If he had pleaded guilty, it probably would have spared him the death penalty. Now, it’s possible that prosecutors will seek the death penalty. But hey, it’s his funeral.

Murders in Myakka: ‘I knew he would snap someday’:

Right off the top, my site was mentioned in this article…sort of. As of the time I’m typing this, they called it trenchcoat.com. Which is all well and good but as most of you know this (used to be -2018 Trench) thetrenchcoat.com. Trenchcoat.com, if I’m not mistaken, is a porn site, so the joke’s on The Herald.

Anyway, the article basically states that those closest to Richard Henderson Jr. had no idea that he would bludgeon his own family to death…

Zach Anderson said he always thought Richard E. Henderson Jr. was crazy, but he never thought he would kill members of his own family.

“I figured he’d be a 35-year-old serial killer, going state to state,” said Anderson, 21, a long-time friend of Henderson’s. “He’s been crazy ever since I knew him. He’s always been out there.”

The crime has since become a hot topic in cyberspace, with everyone from strangers weighing in on sites such as trenchcoat.com, to Henderson’s most recent girlfriend writing on her personal Web site.

In her blog, Henderson’s girlfriend, Danielle Kelvin, said the young man was “broken.”

“All I want you to know is I loved him and he loved me, and I had no idea or help in this,” Kelvin wrote. “I don’t believe in any way what he did was right. He was completely wrong . . . He was a good person with a good heart, he was just broken and I couldn’t change him.”

In addition to the blog on Kelvin’s Web site, there is also a collage of pictures of Kelvin and Henderson, both alone and together. One shows Henderson’s bare back, covered in a marijuana leaf tattoo.

Kelvin recently began dating Henderson and spent the weekend in an Ellenton hotel room with him before he was arrested. She had no idea he had killed his family, according to an investigator’s reports.

“I knew he would snap someday, but why the people that cared about you – the only people in the world who truly care about you. None of us saw this coming. Rich did love his parents. I wish I could have warned his parents,” Anderson said.

I think the girl mentioned in the article has been leaving comments here since a lot of the phrases she posted on her blog match almost exactly to what someone posting as “ex-girlfriend” left on mine.

If anybody has the address to her blog, let me know, please. I’m not going to harass her or anything, I just want to take a look at it. And since I believe Ms. Kelvin is posting here, I have a question for her, if she would be so kind as to indulge me.

Did you know of Henderson’s previous criminal record before you started dating? And if yes, why did you date him? And I’m calling off the dogs for this too. I will keep my commenters in check while awaiting your answer. And to my commenters, please be polite and let’s keep the insults non-existent in this thread.

I await your reply.

A huge nod to T-Rock.

Police release list of evidence in Bradenton quadruple slaying:

In case you haven’t heard, I’ve received some comments from people in support of Richard Henderson Jr. In case you’ve forgotten, he’s the 20-year-old who confessed to bludgeoning his entire family to death on Thanksgiving night.

The general theme of the comments is that Henderson was a supportive, loyal, sensitive guy with a good heart. I guess he just wasn’t supportive, loyal, and sensitive to his own family, and his good heart must have been as black as a thousand midnights…

A letter, metal pipes and a broken baseball bat were among evidence collected from the home of four family members who were bludgeoned to death, police documents released Tuesday showed.

Detectives found skull fragments inside and outside the house. A search warrant inventory listed bloody comforters found covering the four bodies and stained metal pipes and a broken baseball bat found in June Henderson’s bedroom, The Herald in Bradenton reported.

And it seems like he’s already setting up his insanity defense…

In telephone interviews from the county jail, Henderson told The Herald that he is severely mentally ill, and that his parents had been trying to get him help in the weeks before the fatal beatings.

And he shows his gratitude by beating them to death.

He deserves nothing less than the death penalty.