Public defender: Woman charged with murder for shooting her father to plead not guilty
DALTON, Ga. — A woman who was indicted for murder in the shooting death of her father in October will plead not guilty, the public defender said.
Hannah Celese Henderson, 25, was scheduled to be in Superior Court Judge Jim Wilbanks’ courtroom on Wednesday for arraignment but Public Defender Natalie Glaser said Henderson is waiving the hearing and Glaser’s office will enter a plea of not guilty. Henderson was indicted for murder, felony murder, aggravated assault (family violence), possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of meth.
“We will be entering a written waiver of arraignment and entering the not guilty plea and the court will set another court date,” Glaser said. “It hasn’t been set down for a trial yet, and I am not sure what other discovery motions either side may make. There is not much to report right now.”
Henderson called Whitfield County 911 on Oct. 13 and told an operator she shot 50-year-old George Samuel Henderson, claiming her father had been molesting her son and she “saw him.” Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said in a press release at the time that the “evidence collected at the scene did not support” Hannah Henderson’s version of events.
According to an incident report from the sheriff’s office, George Henderson was found lying on the floor of the kitchen of the home at 4045 S. Dixie Highway. A pistol was beside him, with bloody footprints leading from the kitchen to the carport.
The indictment said Hannah Henderson shot her father with a Ruger LCP .380-caliber gun in the head “with malice aforethought.”
Hannah Henderson is being held at the county jail without bond.