Pinellas boy who stabbed his grandmother to death at 13 is sentenced to 22 years in prison

When a 13-year-old boy was accused of brutally stabbing his grandmother to death in St. Petersburg in 2019, police and prosecutors were at a loss.

Javarick Henderson had never been in trouble before and seemed polite and intelligent, if traumatized as he struggled to explain what he had done.

Half a decade later, the answers lay buried in extensive court files. They tell the story of a young man scarred by a chaotic upbringing and who some experts said was temporarily insane at the time of the crime.

The case came to an abrupt end Monday when Henderson, now 18, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. In a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to a sentence of 22 years in prison followed by 13 years of probation.

Pinellas-Pasco District Attorney Bruce Bartlett said he thought the sentence was a reasonable solution. Although he called it a “vicious murder,” the psychological aspect and Henderson’s difficult childhood played a role in the state’s decision to solve the case.

“He will continue to be examined by doctors” Bartlett said. “Until they figure this out, I don’t want this guy on the streets. Absolutely not.”

Recently released transcripts of witness statements provide the clearest picture yet of what led to the murder.

A brutal attack

St. Petersburg Police were called to a home on 60th Avenue South in the Pinellas Point area around 3:40 a.m. on November 25, 2019. Inside, they found Gloria Davis, 56, lying dead near her kitchen. She was stabbed 26 times. Police found an 8-inch butcher knife in a kitchen sink. A trail of blood marked a hallway, a door and the kitchen floor.

Henderson, then 13, was there with his 12-year-old brother. The older boy was bleeding from cuts on his palms. Doctors stitched up his wounds at a hospital later that morning. While he was being treated, an investigator heard him muttering that he hurt himself “because he couldn’t help Grandma,” according to court documents.

The 12-year-old told police that he and his brother spent most of the weekend with Davis. She prepared dinner for them on Sunday evening and went to bed around 10 p.m. The boys stayed up late playing video games and watching Netflix. The 12-year-old fell asleep on a couch shortly after midnight.

Hours later, the boy told a detective, he heard arguing and yelling and that things were being “shaken around.” He heard his grandmother calling his brother’s name, saying she couldn’t breathe and calling 911. He heard someone say, “Hurry up and just die.”

Henderson later brought him up, his brother told investigators, and told him to “look.”

The boys talked about what to do. The younger boy called her father. He told them to call 911.

Later that morning, Henderson sat in a police interrogation room. Detective Paul Etcheson noted that Henderson sometimes had difficulty finding words. At some point he started to cry.

He remembered his grandmother telling him not to stay up too late as she set the alarm and went to bed. He had gotten up around 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom. The house was dark, but he saw dark stains that he assumed were blood. His grandmother’s bedroom door was slightly open and he could see her phone on a dresser.

He couldn’t remember much else.

Investigators would determine that there were no signs of forced entry into Davis’ home. Police noticed “sweep marks” in the blood on the floor and bare footprints, as if someone had tried to clean up the crime scene. Henderson’s bed, the detective said, didn’t look like anyone had slept in it.

Etcheson asked if Henderson hurt his grandmother.

“I don’t think I hurt her,” the detective recalled him saying.

Experts offer a diagnosis

In the years following his incarceration, Henderson met repeatedly with three mental health experts, two from his defense and one from the state.

Wade Myers, a forensic psychiatrist at Brown University, and Robert Shaffer, a clinical neuropsychologist, made the same diagnosis: a brief psychotic disorder.

Myers described it as a rare stress-related disorder that typically occurs in children or young adults and is characterized by a temporary state of psychosis.

In Henderson’s case, he He was described as having been increasingly depressed for weeks before the stabbing. He has withdrawn from people. He heard voices calling his name.

His condition improved in the weeks after his incarceration, Myers testified. He no longer heard voices.

Henderson appeared to the doctor to be polite, cooperative and intelligent, even though he was shy and had difficulty expressing himself. He was a boy who longed to be with his family and have healthy relationships, they said.

Myers testified that some of Henderson’s problems may have stemmed from drug use while his mother was pregnant with him. He had also suffered physical abuse during his 13 years of life. A report the doctor referred to described an incident in 2009, when Henderson was a toddler, in which he was severely beaten after wetting his pants. He was said to have bruises on his legs and buttocks. Henderson also reported an incident of sexual abuse, the doctor said.

He kept his worries to himself and tried to “fight his way through life,” the doctor said.

Weeks before his arrest, Henderson was overcome by delusions that he had to get a knife and kill his grandmother, Myers testified.

The idea was “foreign,” “intrusive” and “powerful,” Myers said. It didn’t make sense to him. He wasn’t angry with his grandmother. He told the doctor he was afraid he was going crazy.

“He tried to fight it,” Myers testified. “And he tried to get out of it. And it kept coming back, no matter how hard he tried to put it out of his mind.”

Another expert hired by the state had a different opinion. Emily Lazarou, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that the stabbing was an indication of antisocial behavior, but she found no pattern of bad behavior in Henderson’s life. She also suggested that Henderson simulated or attempted to simulate symptoms of a mental disorder. However, she did not make a specific diagnosis.

Lazarou, whose work in other cases has been criticized by defense attorneys, has come under scrutiny from Henderson’s public defenders for her methods. But she acknowledged that a chaotic upbringing with parents who were in and out of prison had an impact on his psyche.

“This is a sad case all around,” Lazarou testified. “And the only person who was a good person, who loved him, showed him love and was a good example, he killed him.”

The plea and the verdict

During the years that Henderson’s case was being heard in court, his defense lawyers tried to highlight his age. At the beginning of the proceedings, the defense tried unsuccessfully to have the matter returned to juvenile court.

Before the trial, they were prepared to argue that Henderson’s state of mind was such that he did not understand what he was doing or that it was wrong. It would have been a gamble. Had he been convicted as charged, Henderson could face at least 40 years and up to life in prison.

Given the time already served in prison and a possible early release once he serves 85% of his sentence, Henderson could leave prison in approximately 14 years. He must undergo psychiatric treatment.

Whatever the outcome, Henderson’s life and his family will be changed forever. At 18, he missed graduating from middle school and all of high school. He never had a first job or learned to drive. His family lost their matriarch. They experienced another tragedy earlier this year. Jacques Ford, one of Henderson’s other brothers, was shot and killed in January.

Family members asked for mercy in court.

“This plea agreement closed the chapter of a family tragedy without the need for a long and painful trial,” the Pinellas-Pasco District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “We are grateful that we reached a resolution in which the parties were able to take into account the seriousness and seriousness of the crime while also taking into account Mr. Henderson’s youth and ability to be rehabilitated.”