Don Henderson knew after a Smoky Mountains camping trip that his newest foster child, John, had an affect on people.
Henderson and his wife, who resisted bonding too closely to 47 other children, adopted him.
Nearly three decades later, the Hendersons, after traveling from their Baltimore home to their son's adopted city of Atlanta, will be in Superior Court on Monday to deal with his murder.
Jonathan Redding, 19, stands accused of killing John Henderson during a Grant Park tavern robbery. Three weeks ago, the trial was delayed after a key witness was shot before jury selection. Prosecutors hope the witness, Eddie Pugh, will testify after losing a leg in the attack.
District Attorney Paul Howard has built the case against Redding on forensic evidence. He had hoped to link Pugh's shooting to Redding's reputed street gang 30 Deep, which is notorious for robberies, killings and witness intimidation, according to Don Henderson.
"That didn't pan out," Henderson said. "You can only charge what you can prove."
Henderson has seen the hurdles police and prosecutors face in convicting killers since his son died on Jan. 7, 2009, in the Standard Food & Spirits on Memorial Drive. Within two months, Det. Anthony Gentile had admitted being baffled by the lack of clues. Restaurateurs and the public raised $50,000 for a Crimestoppers reward for information.
"It was the largest in Atlanta's history, and in two years they have not received one actionable tip," Henderson said.
Detectives identified Redding after a gang tried to rob Pugh, a convicted Mechanicsville drug dealer, and his partner in their apartment. The two men under siege fended off the bandits with an AK-47, wounding one who left a pistol behind. DNA from blood on the pistol matched Redding, police said. Ballistics showed the pistol was fired in the tavern robbery but it wasn't the weapon that killed Henderson. Redding's tattoos showed an allegiance to 30 Deep.
Henderson knows his son's actual killer might never be charged with his death. In July 2009, Atlanta police Det. Kevin Otts interviewed a witness who said she heard another man, now jailed on other gang-related charges, boast about killing Henderson.
Prosecutors indicted Redding under a law that makes him guilty of murder if he participated in the robbery.
“I think they believe [the inmate] did it but they need more evidence,” Henderson said. “It needs corroboration and it looks like Jonathan Redding is going to refuse to give any testimony on that. That is why I feel he should bear the full responsibility of the crime.”
The Henderson family also hopes to find emotional closure in court. The murder left a void for the Maryland family that adopted him. John Henderson came to the family when he was seven months old. His birth mother wanted to keep him but decided she was too poor to raise him. She brought him to a Catholic adoption agency for which the Hendersons foster babies.
The mother requested her son be placed with a family with kids. The Hendersons, who had three natural children and would adopt two, were a natural fit.
"She didn't want him raised as an only child," Don Henderson said. "When we got back from the Smokies,I told the agency that they needed to do something because we were getting very attached to him and we might want to keep him. And they said, ‘Well, funny you should say that.'"
The murder hasn't embittered Don Henderson about Atlanta, a city John adopted after struggling to find his place in life. "All three of his older siblings were successful with college and on their way," the father said. "John and college did not fit.”
John Henderson, 27, had found his niche as a bartender and hoped to own his own tavern. On a visit, Don Henderson and his wife watched their son work the counter, chat with customers and flourish. "He loved running a bar," Henderson said. "He could rub bosses the wrong way but patrons loved him."
Don Henderson, after returning to Atlanta for his son's belongings, wandered John's haunts in Little Five Points and Grant Park. He talked to people about his son. He met a cab driver who knew him. A homeless man told him John had treated him with respect. The man's death left bar patrons and workers embracing the Baltimore man in his in grief.
“It seemed like every place I turned, people knew about the case," Don Henderson said. "Their hospitality and sympathy was overwhelming. John loved the place. He was never going to come home."
Don Henderson last saw his son at Christmas before his death. All of the Henderson siblings had come home for the holiday. The father described a contented John in the role of a happy uncle.
"They loved John," Henderson said. “That is why I am confident that if this trial ends up in a conviction there will be members of the family who will be going to the parole hearing 30 years from now to explain why this man should not be back out on the street."
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