Convict in missionaries' murder denies racist motives in killing

The St Mary farmer who earlier this year pleaded guilty to taking part in the brutal and shocking 2016 murder of two United States missionaries in St Mary, had reportedly confessed to shooting both men, claiming “black lives count”.

“Something come into me I couldn’t control," Dwight Henry, who is now 33, reportedly told the police during a question-and-answer session when asked why he killed the men.

But Henry, who is currently serving a life sentence for the missionaries’ murder, today sought to distance himself from that confession and utterances.

He insisted that he had only shot and killed one of the men while his cousin, Andre Thomas, shot and chopped the other man in his head, killing him.

“I never force him to do it. He did it off his own will,” he said.

The main witness, earlier when asked by the prosecutor why he had shot the man in his head, said, “Is just a strange feeling came over me. That why I did it, but I am really sorry. That is why I plead guilty, but a never me do it alone.”

Henry previously pleaded guilty to two counts of murder under a plea deal and was in January sentenced to life in prison with a stipulation that he serve 28 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

Randy Hentzel, 48, and Harold Nichols, 53, were found dead in Wentworth district in St Mary on April 30 and May 1, 2016, respectively.

Hentzel’s body was found on a Saturday, in bushes with a gunshot to the back of his head and his hands bound behind him while Nichols’ body was found the next day with a gunshot to his chest and six chop wounds to his head, some distance away from his colleague.

Both men had left home on separate motorcycles to visit a site where they would be carrying out repairs on a house.

Today, when Henry took the stand in the Home Circuit Court where Thomas is being tried on two counts of murder, he gave his version of how the murder took place.

According to him, on the day of the murder, he and his cousin were in the bushes chopping [coconut] jelly when they heard a motorcycle.

Thomas, he testified, pointed an Intratech weapon at one of the men, stopping him, and the man complied.

Henry said he ordered the man to lie down on the ground and cut off a piece of his shirt and tied his hands behind him.

By this time, he said the other missionary had disembarked his bike and was being led by Thomas, but managed to break away and run.

Thomas, he testified, then fired a shot at the man and they both chased the missionary and he fell into a pool of water. He said Thomas then shot the man and chopped him in his head more than once.

PLAN TO KILL

According to him, they went back to the spot where they left the other man tied up and he shot him in his head and both he and Thomas went their separate ways.

Henry told the court that he never knew the missionaries before the day of the murder and, although he had pleaded guilty to their murder, did not know their names.

Asked whether he and Thomas had any discussion on the day of the incident or whether the victims had said anything, he answered in the negative.

However, during cross-examination from Thomas’ lead attorney, Leroy Equiano, a different version of the murder emerged.

In that version, Henry reportedly told the police that he was the one who stopped the men, by pointing a gun at them, and then ordered one of them on the ground and tied him up. He then shot the man after a feeling came over him and when the other missionary heard the shot and ran he also fired at him but the man kept running.

Both he and Thomas chased the man and, after he jumped into a pool of water, he shot him and Thomas chopped him.

Henry reportedly told the police that he had planned on killing the men when he saw them.

In answer to the police, Henry also reportedly shared that a friend of his had given him the gun and that he threw the machete in a river.

Henry, who for the most part was very reluctant to answer the question of whether he recalled giving the police those answers and in most instances did not answer. He said he did not recall telling the police anything about "Black lives count" or that he had shot both men. He firmly maintained that he only shot one of them.

According to him, he was not prejudiced and loved people from all nations.

Under further cross-examination, he said he did not remember telling the police that his relatives told him about “things that white people do to black people that mek you hate them”.

Henry insisted that he was not angry at the missionaries nor hated them and that the feeling that he claimed came over him had nothing to do with hatred, revenge or cruelty.

Henry will undergo further cross-examination tomorrow.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com