Monday, July 19, 2010

Chesterfield, VA: Autopsy report: Chesterfield woman died after being stabbed 40 times

By Staff Reports | Times-Dispatch
Published: July 19, 2010

A Richmond man who told family members he killed his ex-girlfriend as she cleaned a Chesterfield County office building stabbed her 40 times, including 12 times to the head and neck, according to evidence presented today at the defendant's preliminary hearing.

Joyce Lillian Mann, 56, died of a sharp force injury to her neck but suffered 12 head and neck wounds, 11 chest wounds and 17 wounds to her hands, according to her autopsy report submitted today by Chesterfield prosecutor B.J. McGee.

Haywood Love Hendricks Jr., 45, has been charged with first-degree murder in her April 30 slaying.

After hearing a detective testify that Hendricks admitted to both his daughter and mother that he fatally stabbed Mann, Judge Philip V. Daffron of Chesterfield General District Court certified the murder charge against Hendricks to a Chesterfield Circuit Court grand jury.

According to testimony by Chesterfield Detective John Miller, Hendricks' daughter told police she had dropped Hendricks between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. the night of the slaying at the Applebee's Restaurant near the Moorefield Office Park on Midlothian Turnike. Mann was working as a custodian in an office there in 900 block of Moorefield Park Drive.

Thirty to 45 minutes later, Hendricks' daughter said her father returned to her car and appeared to have some stains on his pants and around his groin area. Hendricks then advised his daughter that he had killed "Joyce" by stabbing her, Miller testified.

The daughter then drove Hendricks back to his mother's residence in the 200 block of East Ladies Mile Road in Richmond, where was living. Once there, Hendricks told his mother that he had killed "Joyce," the mother later told police.

After dropping off her father and consulting with her mother, Hendricks' daughter called Chesterfield emergency communications at 6:53 p.m. to report that her father had killed his ex-girlfriend, according to evidence.

Police went to Hendricks' mother's home to find him about 7:15 p.m., and the mother advised that he had left about 20 minutes earlier. Investigators searched the home and found some bloody clothing belonging to Hendricks and the knife used in the slaying in a pocket of some pants, according to testimony.

On May 2, police officers encountered Hendricks when they went to serve him with a murder warrant at his mother's home. Officers shot Hendricks as he approached them and repeatedly raised what appeared to be a pistol at officers and bystanders, police said.

For more on this story, see tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.

-- Mark Bowes

No comments: