Murder trial focuses on what police, EMTs saw at stabbing scene
By Jim Phillips
May 8, 2008
According to a police officer who responded to the scene of a fatal stabbing in Nelsonville, murder defendant Ronald Hendrickson II told him at the April 2007 crime scene that after Hendrickson’s ex-girlfriend wounded him with a pocket knife, Hendrickson took the weapon from her and stabbed her repeatedly.
“He said, ‘She stabbed me, and I took the knife, and I stabbed her, and stabbed her, and stabbed her, and stabbed her,’” testified Brian Sass, a patrol officer with Hocking College Police who was among the officers responding to the incident.
On Wednesday, Sass testified for the state in Hendrickson’s aggravated murder trial in Athens County Common Pleas Court, which started Monday. Hendrickson is accused of having killed 21-year-old Jodi Blankenship on April 12, 2007, by stabbing her 14 times in the neck, torso and arms with a small folding knife.
The two lived with three other Hocking College students in a rented house on Fort Street in Nelsonville. Both sides in the trial agree that Hendrickson killed Blankenship, and that he had been upset by her breaking up with him about six weeks earlier. On the night of her death, the two had had an argument about her plans to have a new boyfriend spend the weekend at the house.
In opening arguments Wednesday morning, attorneys for the state and defense both stated that Blankenship had locked herself in a bathroom inside the house during an argument, and that Hendrickson shut off the electricity to the bathroom, then waited outside for Blankenship to emerge.
County Prosecutor C. David Warren argued that Hendrickson had a deliberate plan to kill Blankenship, out of jealousy of the new boyfriend who was coming to visit.
Defense attorney Victor A. Hodge maintained that Hendrickson stabbed his ex-girlfriend in an “out-of-control” reaction, after Blankenship first stabbed him in his left abdomen after she came out of the bathroom.
This version of events got at least partial support from some of the state’s witnesses Wednesday, though this was based mainly on what they heard Hendrickson himself tell them when they arrived on the scene.
Paramedic Tim Rodehaver of the Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Services, for example, testified that Hendrickson “stated that he had been stabbed, and in self-defense, he had stabbed her.”
Points of contention between the two sides will probably include the seriousness of Hendrickson’s wounds.
In opening arguments, Warren stressed that the wounds were both less than 2 centimeters in length. Hendrickson “(didn’t) even need a stitch,” he told the jury.
In questioning prosecution witnesses, however, Hodge focused repeatedly on evidence that Hendrickson was apparently dazed after the incident, and had a clot of blood in his hand from the wounds in his side.
The police and EMS witnesses testified that when they first arrived, they found Hendrickson sitting on the front steps of the rental house, rocking back and forth, holding his side, and muttering something over and over.
Ptl. Sean Champ of the Nelsonville Police testified that when he arrived on scene, “it didn’t appear that (Hendrickson’s) wounds were life-threatening.”
Rodehaver testified that the seriousness of the wound “didn’t appear to be that great,” and that the bleeding was brought under control on scene before Hendrickson was transported to the hospital.
When he asked Hendrickson about what had happened in the residence, NPD officer Keith Tabler testified, “he advised that, ‘I think I killed her.’”
Hodge seemed especially interested in a clot of blood, probably Hendrickson’s, that was found just in front of the house. He asked multiple witnesses whether they had seen it, and if they knew who had placed a piece of plastic porch furniture over it, apparently to protect it. This line of questioning seemed to perplex Warren, and Hodge didn’t make immediately clear why he might consider this important to the case.
Another point where Hodge appeared to be laying groundwork Wednesday had to do with the lighting in the house, and which lights were working when authorities arrived. This probably has something to do with Hendrickson’s having hit the breaker box to the bathroom, but again, it wasn’t clear exactly where Hodge was trying to go with it.
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jharr commented, on May 9, 2008 at 12:43 p.m.:
It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I hope the Athens news does a good job of keeping us informed.
