Demand a Fair Trial for James Henderson and Ronald Kaufman, wrongfully convicted since age 18.
During the evening hours of January 18, 2000, two gunmen on foot approached and attacked the occupants of a car driven by Jason Bell. The gunman on the passenger side of Bell's car held a gun to the passenger and told her not to move or he would shoot her. The gunman on the driver's side fired shots striking Bell who later died of gunshot wounds. The attack occured in Bell's driveway located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As a result of those events James Brown Henderson was initially charged, along with two codefendants, Demario Grayson and Ronald D. Kaufman with first degree murder in Tulsa County District Court, case No. CF-2000-549.
On March 17, 2000, the state dismissed the case, the state then refiled the information in Tulsa County District, case No. CF-2000-1483, charging James Brown Henderson and both codefendants with first degree murder. However, on April 7, 2000, before the preliminary hearing, the trial court announced that the charges against demario Grayson had been dismissed. at the conclusion of the preliminary hearing the trial court sustained the defendant's demurrer bases on insufficient evidence to find probable cause. On April 28, 2000, the case was dismissed, and the defendants were released from custody. On may 5, 2000, the state again refilled the information in Tulsa county district Court case no. CF 2000 2372, charging James Henderson with acting in concert with Ronald Kaufman to commit first degree murder. After the magistrate judge determined that the state had infact discovered new evidence, the case proceeded to preliminary hearing.
James Brown Henderson and his codefendant were bound over trial, on June 2, 2000, an amended information was filed, charging James Brown Henderson with acting inconcert with Ronald Kaufman to commit count 1. First-Degree Murder and/or in the alternative First-Degree Murder in the commission of a felony. January 16-18, 2001, James Brown Henderson and his codefendant were tried jointly by a jury. James Brown Henderson was found guilty of Murder in the First Degree. Malice afore thought and/or in the alternative of Murder in the First Degree in the commission of a Felony. On March 23, 2001, the trial court sentenced James Brown Henderson, in accordance with the jury's recommendation to life with the possibility of parole.
Now after reading this case, I was left scratching my head, puzzled wanting to know more.Upon further investigation I immediately learned there was something very seriously wrong with this case and that a second review was definitely warranted. There was never any physical evidence discovered throughout this whole investigation to substantiate or support the so-called witness's testimony. All four witnesses were blatantly unreliable and obviously lying through their teeth. Three of the four gave separate testimonies of the events that allegedly occurred the night of the incident. They openly lied in court and even recanted their testimony on the stand, which was grossly ignored and overlooked. There was no murder weapon ever recovered and the DNA result came back inconclusive, and the assailants were unidentifiable due to them wearing ski masks. Both defendants had rock solid alibis but 22yrs of their life have been spent held captive inside the walls and fences of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
When will these types of injustices stop? When will Tulsa County stop sending innocent people to prison based on hearsay and circumstantial evidence? Please join me in my attempt to bring awareness and attention to this case and others alike.