Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991 TAG: 9103280358
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINCHESTER LENGTH: Long
Jurors recommended Henderson be sentenced to life in prison.
Henderson was also found guilty of abduction and robbery, and the jury recommended life terms on each of those convictions as well.
Esther Whitlock, the victim's mother, said afterward that her family would have to accept the verdict, but she was disappointed with the jury's decision.
"When he took my daughter from the parking lot, he was just as guilty as Tommy David Strickler," she said.
Strickler has been convicted of capital murder and is awaiting execution on death row - a fate the Whitlock family had hoped also for Henderson.
Whitlock said it would be difficult to ever put this behind her.
"I've lost my daughter," she said. "She'll never have another chance, but he will have hope of someday getting out and starting a new life."
Henderson, 25, showed little emotion when the verdict was read.
Circuit Court Judge Rudolph Bumgardner III will sentence Henderson after a pre-sentencing report is prepared, which is expected to take six to eight weeks. The trial was moved from Augusta County to Winchester because of pretrial publicity.
The six-man, six-woman jury took about 90 minutes to reach a verdict in the case, which both the prosecuting and defense attorneys agreed came down to one issue: whether to convict Henderson of capital murder or first-degree murder.
Neither Commonwealth's Attorney A. Lee Ervin nor Henderson's court-appointed attorney, Humes J. Franklin Jr., disputed the robbery or abduction charges. They acknowledged Henderson admitted kidnapping Whitlock from a Harrisonburg shopping mall in January 1990 and stealing her car.
Where Ervin and Franklin disagreed was on the murder charge.
Franklin argued the evidence against Henderson was insufficient to prove he actually killed Whitlock.
To convict Henderson of capital murder, Bumgardner had instructed the jury that they had to be convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that Henderson inflicted the fatal blows that killed Whitlock. It was not enough to be present aiding and abetting, Bumgardner said.
Franklin urged the jury members to use their common sense and believe the testimony of Henderson, who took the witness stand earlier Wednesday.
Henderson testified that it was Strickler who killed Whitlock by hitting her over the head with a large rock. Henderson said he tried to stop Strickler but could not. He said the killing made him sick to his stomach.
Ervin called Henderson's story "completely incorrect and unbelievable."
Henderson said Strickler killed Whitlock in an Augusta County cornfield about 50 yards from where the murder weapon - a 69-pound rock - and two bloody indentations in the ground were found.
When Ervin pressed him on the issue, however, Henderson said he could not explain how the rock and the indentations got there. He insisted Whitlock was killed in the cornfield and that neither he nor Strickler had moved the rock.
Ervin took aim at Henderson's claim that he drove the car when the two men kidnapped Whitlock from Valley Mall in Harrisonburg. That contradicted earlier testimony by a witness to the abduction, who said the men forced Whitlock to drive them away from the mall.
Henderson also said that after Strickler killed Whitlock, Henderson wanted to return to Timberville, where he was staying with friends. But Strickler instead took him to Dice's Inn, a dance hall in Staunton, Henderson said. There, Henderson got drunk and danced with several women, he said, but he denied giving one of them Whitlock's watch, despite the woman's testimony that he did. The watch was later identified as Whitlock's.
Lastly, Ervin took issue with Henderson's claim that he never touched Whitlock, except briefly to move her body after she was dead.
Ervin asked then, how come a hair matching his was found balled up with her shirt and bra?
Ervin, too, asked the jury members to use their common sense. He asked them to question the credibility of Henderson's testimony.
He told the jury that Henderson had reason to lie. He wanted to save himself from the electric chair. He asked what reasons the other witnesses would have for lying.
One of those witnesses, Kenneth Workman, testified Henderson told him the morning after Whitlock was slain that he had killed a "nigger," Ervin pointed out. He said Workman was the key witness against Henderson. He said they had been friends and that Workman had no reason to lie about Henderson's statements.
Franklin, however, questioned the credibility of Workman, who he said is a convicted felon.
Franklin also questioned the credibility of another key prosecution witness, Jeffrey Woods, who has felony charges pending against him. Woods had testified that he overheard Henderson tell another prisoner in the Augusta County Jail that he dropped the rock on Whitlock.
But that prisoner, Michael Wiseman, was never called to testify.
"Where is Mike Wiseman?" Franklin asked the jury in his closing argument. "Why can't we hear it from Mike Wiseman? Don't you think that on a capital murder charge that you ought to have the man here who allegedly he said this to?"
Ervin said Wiseman did not testify because he did not come forward. Only Woods came forward.
"Are you going to convict this man of capital murder based on some jailbird's testimony who is going to get a deal out of this?" Franklin asked.
Unable to make bond, Woods had been in jail for more than four months before coming forward. In exchange for his testimony, Woods was promised that one of the felony charges against him would be dropped and that he will receive no further jail time.
Rather, Franklin argued, why not believe Henderson?
"He's the only person who can tell you what happened in that field that night," Franklin said. And Henderson told his version of the story knowing it would contradict previous testimony from other witnesses, he said.
Henderson had been in the courtroom. He could have said it was Whitlock who drove away from the mall. He could have said he did give a woman Whitlock's watch at Dice's Inn, Franklin said.
And he could have said Strickler killed Whitlock where the rock and bloody indentations in the ground were found. But he did not, Franklin said. Instead, Henderson told his story the way he remembered it.
"What does your common sense say? Common sense tells you that Ronald Lee Henderson was telling the truth," he said.
After the trial, Franklin would not comment on the verdict or sentence.
Ervin said it was a close case and although he was disappointed, he was not surprised by the jury's verdict.
"Personally, I feel he is just as much guilty as Tommy David Strickler," Ervin said. "But I understand their reluctance in returning capital murder."
He said the verdict would have no impact on the Strickler appeal, which the Virginia Supreme Court is expected to rule on next month.
by CNB