Â鶹Çø

Skip to main content
You have permission to edit this article.
Edit

Cross-examination of a key witness took place in Henderson trial

  • Updated
  • 0
Cross-examination of a key witness took place in Henderson trial

A key witness in a Madison County mass murder trial returned to the stand for a second day on Monday. 

That witness is one of Christopher Henderson's wives.

He is accused of murdering five people including his second wife and their unborn child.

The cross-examination of Rhonda Carlson, the co-defendant and Henderson's first wife, started Monday morning.

Defense attorney Bruce Gardner asked Rhonda multiple background questions about her life and her relationship with Henderson.

At one point he asked her, "The truth does not come easy for you," and Carlson responded with, "Yes sir."

Gardner played for the courtroom almost two hours of the recorded interrogation of Carlson by investigators the night of the murders.

Carlson said multiple times in the interrogation video that she did not go into the house.

When Gardner paused the video he said, "You lied about what we saw there...going into the house," and she responded with, "Yes sir."

Now Carlson did admit to bringing gas cans to the house on St. Clair Lane, but said she did not know what happened in the house.

The defense also played three phone call recordings from the Madison County jail in court Monday.

The first phone call between Carlson and her father was just weeks after the murders happened.

At one point during the call she tells her dad, " I think I screwed up."

She also tells him that she does not really remember it because she had a headache that day in August and was in a fog.

The second recorded phone call was a conversation between Carlson and one of her daughters in late September of 2015.

During the call you can hear them talk about how you can call judges directly and the daughter keeps telling Carlson how much she loves her.

After the third recorded phone call was played Gardner brought up the fact that even two months after the murders Carlson still can't remember a lot of details from that August day.

Monday afternoon the defense also played a lengthy audio recording between Rhonda Carlson and the prosecution.

The recording is from August of 2019, that's when defense attorney Bruce Gardner says Carlson cut her deal with the prosecution.

She has a plea deal where her truthful testimony takes the death penalty off the table for her case.

In the recording, Carlson said that she and Christopher Henderson split up in Alabama.

She also told the prosecution that her and Henderson's relationship never got physical and that they broke up because he cheated on her with Kristin.

After the recording finished playing Gardner asked Carlson multiple questions about her mental state and the medications she was taking.

Gardner also asked her about how in 2016 she had reported that she was having nightmares.

After both the prosecution and defense finished their questioning of Rhonda Carlson she was dismissed from the stand.

The prosecution then brought up two more witnesses, one a forensic scientist, the other investigator Nash who questioned Rhonda the day of the murders.

The District Attorney's Chief Trial Attorney Tim Gann confirmed the prosecution rested its case late Monday afternoon.

Recommended for you