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Testimony in murder trial to continue |
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 |
By James Leigh — Staff Writer
Testimony continued Friday in the first degree murder trial of Kameron Henderson in front of Seventh Judicial Circuit Judge Phillip Shirron, and testimony will resume Monday morning.
The state called Hot Spring County Deputy Robert Terry to the stand to start the day’s testimony.
Terry testified that when he got the call, he was at his home in Lonsdale, and he, along with Rockport officer Jay Cessor, were the first law enforcement officer on the scene.
Terry said that it was raining “extremely hard” on the day of the incident, and when he arrived on the scene, there was a large number of people in the roadway. He also noted that the victim, Dwight Reece, was lying in the road with his feet facing Henderson’s driveway and his head toward a houseboat across the street.
Terry told the court that he located the weapon, a .22 caliber rifle, in Henderson’s truck. He then unloaded the weapon and left it in the vehicle.
Terry said that he turned the scene over to Deputy Barbi Koder, and he then went back to the Sheriff’s Department to conduct interviews with the witnesses.
The state then introduced Henderson’s videotaped interview with Terry.
During the video, Henderson said that his wife had called him about Reece’s dog killing one of his chickens, and Henderson called a friend of his to investigate. After talking with his friend, Henderson decided to go to his house to check things out for himself.
Henderson said that he called his mother-in-law, as well as 9-1-1, on his way to his house. When he arrived, Henderson said that Reece met him at his house, and his dogs were with him.
Henderson warned Reece that he would shoot the dogs if Reece did not get them off of the property, and Henderson then walked back to his truck.
“I got the gun out of the truck, and he picked up the pipe,” he said. “When he saw the gun, he didn’t like that much. He started screaming at me. I didn’t really think about it. I just started shooting.”
After the video, Terry told the court that, at one point, the victim’s father confronted him.
“I had to draw my firearm,” he said, pointing out that the elder Reece was reaching for something in the rear of his pants. “He was throwing his arms and hands up.”
Terry told the court that he conducted all of the interviews for the case, and each witness said that Reece had something in his hand when he was shot. Terry said that Henderson said that a large pipe was in his hands, but other witnesses mentioned other items, including sticks and broom handles.
After Terry’s testimony, the state called Koder to the stand.
Koder testified that she arrived on the scene after it had been secured and Reece had been transported by the ambulance. She also said that she took photographs of the scene.
Koder also took pictures of Henderson’s rifle before she secured it in her patrol car.
Koder identified several pictures for the prosecution, and she said that Henderson’s truck was approximately 100 feet from the road where Reece was shot. She also identified a bullet hole in the side of the boat.
During the course of her investigation, Koder was contacted by Terry and Sheriff Ryan Burris, who told her that she should look for a weapon similar in size and shape to a four foot metal pipe, but the only items that she found – an axe handle and an eight foot T-post – were denied by the witnesses to have been the weapon that Reece had in his hands.
Koder said that the rain was still intense while she was photographing the scene.
“It was still pouring,” she said.
Koder’s testimony also pointed out that no shell casings from the .22 rifle were located, despite three days of searching.
The state then called Lorene Brock to the stand. Brock, at the time of the shooting, lived across the road from Henderson, and she told the court that she had no problems with Henderson or with Reece.
Earlier on the day of the incident (March 24, 2009), Reece had been at Brock’s home helping to work on the party barge. After the group he was working with finished working on the boat, he left and later returned to see if his friend Billy, Brock’s grandson, was around.
While he was there, one of Reece’s pit bulls grabbed one of Henderson’s roosters that was in Brock’s yard, and they believed that the dog had killed it.
Brock then testified that Reece had taken his dogs home, but they later returned.
Brock said that when Henderson got home, Reece went to the back of Henderson’s truck and told him that his dog had killed one of the chickens.
Henderson allegedly told him to get the dogs out of his yard, and he walked back to his truck. Reece then allegedly walked back to the road.
Henderson got his .22 caliber rifle out of the truck, and he started to approach Reece and his dogs. Brock said that Reece then picked up a plastic mop handle and said, “You’re not going to kill my f***ing dogs.”
The pair took a few more steps, Brock said, and then she said she heard Henderson fire four shots.
Brock was then asked to point out on a picture where she saw Henderson and Reece that day, but the locations appeared to vary.
Brock testified that she he was not on the road when he was shot, but, after she was shown where the body was, she said that he had been moved.
Testimony continued Friday afternoon, and it should resume Monday morning.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 March 2010 )
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