Ohio Supreme Court declines to review Hocking murder case

The Athens County Prosecutor's Office announced last week that the Ohio Supreme Court has refused to review the conviction of former Hocking College student Ronald Hendrickson II on a charge of aggravated murder.

Hendrickson, 24, was convicted in August 2008 after a jury trial in Athens County Common Pleas Court, and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, for having stabbed to death his former girlfriend, 21-year-old Jodi Blankenship.

At the time, both were students at Hocking College and lived with other students in a Nelsonville rental house, though the two had recently broken off a romantic relationship. Hendrickson reportedly stabbed Blankenship after they had an argument about her plans to have her new boyfriend stay over at the house.

Hendrickson was convicted of stabbing Blankenship an estimated 14 times in their apartment on Fort Street in Nelsonville in April 2007.

Hendrickson appealed his conviction to the Ohio 4th District Court of Appeals, but lost. The court rejected an argument that the judge in Hendrickson's case should have given the jury the option to find that Hendrickson acted in self-defense when he stabbed Blankenship.

It likewise rejected claims that the judge should have offered the jury the option to convict on a lesser, involuntary manslaughter charge, and that Hendrickson's trial attorney gave him ineffective counsel when he reportedly misinformed him about the maximum sentence he faced if convicted, leading him to reject a possible plea bargain.