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Hendrix verdict produces relief for 1 family, tears for another
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Shonqualin Hendrix, 16, hugs his attorney Mark Lavelle immediately after a jury of seven men and five women cleared him of murder charges in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
jgoodwin@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
The ordeal is over for the family of a 16-year-old charged with murder.
A family member of the victim, however, shed tears after the not-guilty verdict a jury returned Wednesday for Shonqualin Hendrix, saying all his family has now are pictures.
Hendrix, dressed in dark pants and a white shirt similar to the school uniforms worn by students his age attending school, has sat quietly all week listening to attorneys argue his case before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
He had been charged with murder in the shooting of 17-year-old Braylen Collins of West Glenaven Avenue on the South Side in July 2011.
Robert Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor, and Mark Lavelle, representing Hendrix, offered closing statements to the jury Thursday morning. The jury began deliberating the case Thursday afternoon, returning a not-guilty verdict quickly.
Hendrix only offered a slight smile as Judge Sweeney read the verdict. Members of his family whispered and quickly applauded as Hendrix hugged his attorney.
Rontelli Reed, Hendrix’s father, said the verdict lifted a heavy burden from his family.
“We are just so happy and so relieved. It has been a lot of stress,” he said. “I do feel for their family, but I am happy that this is over. The whole time he has said he was innocent, and that has been proven.”
Sophia Hendrix, Hendrix’s mother, said she had at one time been friends with Collins’ family and feels terrible about the situation but has always believed her son was innocent. She said she hopes whoever is responsible is apprehended.
Prosecutors, just before the start of the trial Tuesday, offered Hendrix a plea deal where his charges would be reduced to manslaughter with a gun specification and he would serve 13 years in prison. Sophia Hendrix said a plea deal was not even a consideration.
“We were not taking any plea because our son was innocent, and we were going to see this to the end. A whole year of this was something very hard to go through,” she said.
Terrance Woodall, Collins’ uncle, assumed a prayer position and shed tears in the courtroom as the verdict was read.
He said Hendrix was found not guilty, but he still thinks there is a certain level of culpability just because he was there when the shooting took place.
“That night, him being there, changed the whole dynamic of our family. Even if you are found not guilty, you were guilty of just being there the day before and the day he was shot,” Woodall said.
Woodall said the Hendrix family can watch their son continue to live and go forward in life, but his family is left with only pictures.
Prosecutors contend the events leading to Collins’ murder began the day before the shooting with an altercation between 19-year-old Delord Green and Hendrix. Green and Collins were good friends.
Prosecutors told the jury that Green and Hendrix were involved in an altercation in which Hendrix pulled out a firearm, but Green wrestled the gun away from him and kept the weapon.
Prosecutors say the next day, Hendrix, while out walking with friends, ran into Green again while Green was walking with Collins.
Prosecutors said multiple shots were fired with at least one hitting Collins in the chest. He died after being taken into Green’s Summer Street home.
Lavelle told jurors the case should be all about Green, who was seen by several people firing a firearm the day of the shooting.