Man Charged With 'Heinous' Murder of Parents

 Bay City News

 A convicted felon charged today in the vicious slaying of his adoptive parents Sunday in Aptos could face a sentence of life without parole if found guilty, according to the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office.

  James Roland Henderson, 39, a transient, was charged at an arraignment hearing Wednesday with two counts of murder with special circumstances for multiple murders, Assistant District Attorney Ross Taylor said.

  A Superior Court judge in Santa Cruz assigned a public defender for Henderson, who entered no plea, and continued his arraignment to July 17 at the defender's request, Taylor said.    

  Joseph Henderson, 71, and his wife Edith Henderson, 68, who were James Henderson's adoptive parents, were brutally killed Sunday afternoon after Edith made a 911 call to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff's Deputy April Skalland said.   

  Taylor described their deaths as a "heinous crime" and said that the case comes down to "what motivated the killings." 

  "There was some kind of conflict and during that conflict, Mr. Henderson goes into a silver BMW and ran over the first victim and afterward beat his mother to death," Taylor said.

  The car ran across Joseph Henderson's chest, crushing his bones and organs, and then Edith Henderson "was wickedly beaten" with an object or a person's hand, Taylor said.

  "I was struck by how brutal and senseless these killings were," Taylor said. "There doesn't seem to be any justification for them."

  "He faces a life term if convicted, there's no doubt about that," Taylor said.

  James Henderson has been in state prison five times on previous convictions for two burglaries, auto theft, theft and interfering with a police officer with great bodily injury, Taylor said.

  Henderson, held on $2 million bail, is also charged with violating his probation on a felony vandalism conviction from last November, Taylor said.

  His previous prison time qualifies as a strike that could add more prison time if he is found guilty of the murders, Taylor said.         

  A county pathologist determined from autopsies on both victims that Joseph Henderson died from blunt trauma to his torso "with mechanical asphyxiation" while his wife Edith Henderson, 68, died of head trauma with hyoid bone fractures, Skalland said.

  The sheriff's office would not explain the pathologist's terminology from the autopsy results, Skalland said.

  The murders were the first two of the year in the sheriff's office's jurisdiction, which does not include the incorporated cities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville, Skalland said.

  At about 4:48 p.m. Sunday, a few minutes before she and her husband were killed, Edith Henderson made a 911 call about a family disturbance at their two-story home at 163 Ridgeview Drive in Aptos, Skalland said.

  Both were slain during the brief time between Edith's call and when sheriff's deputies arrived, Skalland said.

  After deputies pulled in, they found that Joseph had been hit and killed by a car outside and Edith lying dead in the home, Skalland said. About three hours later, James Henderson was located in a horse stall at a neighbor's house lying on the ground with his eyes closed, Skalland said.

  Henderson engaged in a brief struggle with deputies before his arrest on suspicion of murder, Skalland said.

  Henderson had not been homeless but was a "couch surfer" who  drifted from place to place and was recently kicked out of a condominium on Atherton Drive in Aptos, Skalland said.    

  Detectives are still investigating the murders and the motive, Skalland said.