Love triangle murder trial hears opening statements

Jeffrey Scott Henderson was "an unremarkable man” who drove a school bus and umpired part time, a prosecutor told jurors yesterday.

Yet on July 6, 2006, as Henderson thawed chicken for his new wife’s dinner, somebody entered the fourth-story apartment at 1107 Second Ave. in Redwood City and shot the 49-year-old in the back of the head and left his body with a rope tied around one hand.

That wife was the motive, a woman wanted by both Henderson and Samuel Blackmon, her other lover now on trial for murder, according to prosecutor Al Giannini who in opening statements described the shooting as "cold, premeditated, planned, well-executed.”

Beatriz Butler may have been a factor in her husband’s death but it wasn’t at the hand of Blackmon, defense attorney Lisa Maguire argued.

Instead, it could have been any number of other men with whom Butler was involved but who were never investigated by police as exhaustively as her client.

Although police long suspected Blackmon, he was not arrested until March 23, 2007. The arrest came after the county crime lab returned genetic tests from the rope showing a near-impossibility someone other than Henderson was in the apartment. The findings have since been downgraded because re-tests of the same DNA swabs using more modern techniques showed a greater number of possible matches on one sample and inconclusive results on another.

Giannini told jurors to balance the results with who wanted Henderson dead.

Motive may be one of the few things jurors do have to consider — Maguire said the medical examiner arrived more than seven hours after Butler called 911 so no time of death is available to correlate with alibis and phone records. The questioned trace DNA is also minimal "background noise” that Giannini said wasn’t worth wasting the jury’s time.

Maguire, though, countered the prosecution was trying to downplay a flimsy case.

"Waste our time,” she said in closing her statement. "If you have a little bit of evidence, waste my time with it.”

Giannini instead focused on a series of cell phone calls made when Blackmon, 46, told police he was in the East Bay but which records locate within blocks of Butler’s apartment on the night Henderson died.

Those phone records are the one large mistake in Blackmon’s otherwise solid plan, Giannini said.

The triangle between the three primary players and Henderson’s subsequent death is a "very simple case,” he said, but to better understand the overlapping relationships jurors need to jump back 16 years to when Butler, then 18, met Henderson, her school bus driver. The two began a lengthy relationship in which Butler asked for marriage and children but Maguire said Henderson delivered only broken promises.

In 2005, Butler threatened to leave but was temporarily placated by Henderson’s offer of marriage. By the end of the year, Butler began socializing with other men and met Henderson, a manager at Western Appliance, at an Oakland club.

Giannini said Blackmon was "obsessed,” proposing marriage three weeks later and confronting another man with whom she was intimate. Maguire said Blackmon thought Butler wanted someone who could commit and didn’t realize she was still involved with others, including Henderson.

Henderson, finally aware he was losing his partner, began wooing Butler and, on June 15, they married, Giannini said.

Only three days earlier, though, Butler made an offer on a San Leandro house with Blackmon. She claimed he was suicidal and she felt sorry for him. On July 4, she told Blackmon the relationship was over and two days later Henderson was dead, Giannini said.

Butler came home from work expecting to find dinner. Instead, she found Henderson dead. She called 911 and Blackmon. He arrived at the apartment and as everybody went to the police station, Giannini said, "the lying starts.”

The lies reportedly include Blackmon’s claims to be only in the East Bay and both he and Butler’s descriptions of their relationships.

Maguire said Blackmon was unlucky enough to receive Butler’s call that night which is why police focused solely on him as a suspect.

Maguire did not indicate in her opening statement if Blackmon will testify on his own behalf.

Butler is not charged in the case. The prosecution is expected to call her to the stand but she has invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination.

Blackmon remains in custody in lieu of $2 million bail.

The prosecution continues its case today.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.