HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — A man convicted of the 2015 murders of five people in New Market says he did not get a fair trial, that prosecutors focused on the wrong person and he wants his conviction overturned.
Christopher Henderson was found guilty of multiple counts of capital murder in 2021 and given a death sentence. His direct appeals were denied, but his filing under Alabama’s Rule 32 standard allows him to argue that constitutional violations were committed during his trial and that his case should be reconsidered.
Henderson and his co-defendant, Rhonda Carlson, were both charged with capital murder following the 2015 killings. The victims were identified as Henderson’s 9-months-pregnant wife Kristen Smallwood, her unborn baby Loryn Brooke Smallwood, her 8-year-old son Clayton Chambers, her one-year-old nephew Eli Sokolowski, and Kristen’s mother, Jean Smallwood.
Prosecutors have argued that nothing in Henderson’s new filings would have changed the outcome of the case and say it should be dismissed.
A hearing on that dismissal motion was held before Madison County Circuit Judge Chris Comer Thursday. Comer issued an order Thursday afternoon saying he’d take the matter under advisement and gave the parties 60 days to file proposed orders in the case.
Henderson and Carlson were still married at the time he married Kristen Smallwood. He and Smallwood became estranged. Prosecutors say Henderson went to Smallwood’s family home in New Market in July 2015 and killed everyone inside, then set the house on fire.
Carlson testified against him in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. She testified she dropped Henderson off at the home and came and picked him up after about 15 minutes. But Henderson’s new lawyers in the case said investigators missed several key details that show Carlson was more involved than she admitted. The defense argues Carlson had scratches on her arms, had blood on her shirt, had access to the same kind of gun used in the killings and suffered from “command hallucinations” that caused her to commit violent acts.
Henderson’s Rule 32 filing argues his trial attorneys failed to follow up on key details in the case, failed during the sentencing phase to tell the jury about the abuse Henderson suffered as a child. They also argue surveillance video evidence from the home that day was mishandled.
The jury deliberated two full days before finding Henderson guilty on 15 counts of capital murder.
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