Nasser Hamad indicted on charges that could produce the death penalty

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy,com

WARREN

Nasser Hamad, the Howland man accused of killing two young men and injuring three other people Saturday in front of his home on state Route 46 near the Eastwood Mall, is now facing the possibility of being executed by the state.

A Trumbull County grand jury Wednesday indicted Hamad, 47, on two counts of aggravated murder with specifications that would allow for the death penalty if he’s convicted.

He also was indicted on six counts of attempted aggravated murder, even though he’s accused of shooting only three people who survived.

In an unusual twist, the six counts of attempted aggravated murder filed against Hamad are because police say Hamad first fired at the five people until his bullets ran out, then went back into the house, got another ammunition clip, returned to the front yard and started firing again.

The six attempted murder charges alone could produce a prison sentence of more than 60 years if he’s convicted. Hamad will be arraigned at 11 a.m. today before Judge Ronald Rice of the county’s common pleas court.

Killed at the scene was Joshua Haber, 19. Josh Williams, 20, of Woodbine Avenue, died later at the hospital.

Bryce Hendrickson, 20, and John Shively, 17, survived, along with April Trent-Vokes, 42, who police say drove the four men to Hamad’s home.

During Hamad’s first court hearing this week, his lawyer asked Judge Rice to set a bond for Hamad, saying his client “did nothing but defend himself” and had suffered a broken arm in a fight just before the gunfire.

The judge set bond at $5 million, and Hamad remains in the county jail.

But Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker on Wednesday filed a document with the court seeking to revoke that bond. It says Hamad provided his address to the victims, and “laid in wait with an array of weapons at his home, including a 9 mm handgun.”

“The defendant got exactly what he wanted, a fight in his front yard,” it states.

An affidavit filed earlier this week says the five victims went to Hamad’s home after a lengthy and profanity-filled Facebook exchange earlier Saturday among Hamad, Hendrickson and Shively. In the messages, Hamad threatened Henderson and Shively, and the two younger males returned those threats.

Police said the five drove into Hamad’s driveway and got out, with Shively engaging Hamad in a fist fight.

After the fight in the front yard, the prosecutors say the five people began to get back into a van, intent on leaving. They say Hamad retrieved a loaded weapon from his house, then came back out and began firing into the vehicle.

“The defendant unloaded approximately 10 rounds into the vehicle which was parked at the end of his driveway with the busiest stretch of roadway in Trumbull County behind the van at one of the busiest times of the day,” Watkins and Becker say in Wednesday’s filing, provided to The Vindicator by its broadcast partner, 21 WFMJ-TV.

If Hamad were to be sent to death row, he’d join eight others from Trumbull County residing there. The last one, David Martin, was added in 2014 for killing Jeremy Cole, 21, and trying to kill Melissa Putnam, then 27, in a house on Oak Street Southwest.

Police have said the conflict involving Hamad apparently stemmed from a monthslong dispute between Hamad and the family of his girlfriend, Tracy Hendrickson, the mother of Bryce Hendrickson.

Brian Hendrickson, Tracy’s estranged husband who is also father to Bryce and Dylan Hendrickson as well as uncle to Josh Williams, told The Vindicator any suggestion that he “fueled” the animosity police believe led up to the shootings is false.

He and his sons lived on Dawson Drive in Howland when tensions escalated, but he moved the family out to reduce those tensions, he said.

Howland police reports suggest the feud reached a boiling point Nov. 6. Brian Hendrickson called 911 that day to say he had heard Hamad threatening to shoot him while listening to a phone conversation Hendrickson’s son was having with Tracy Hendrickson.

Hamad told Howland police that day he believed Brian Hendrickson was responsible for damage to a car on his property. He said Brian Hendrickson and his sons had been sending text messages to Tracy Hendrickson threatening to use guns on Hamad, according to police reports.

Hamad’s house is a short distance from Hendricksons’ former home on Dawson Drive, so the Hendrickson family had to routinely pass Hamad’s house, Brian Hendrickson said.

That was difficult for his sons. By late January, after he said Tracy Hendrickson had come back home and left again the last time, Brian Hendrickson said he resolved he and Tracy were finished.

“I was done,” he said.

Tracy filed for divorce from Brian on Friday, but Brian said he was not aware of it on Saturday and doesn’t think his sons were aware of it, either.

He had not spoken with Tracy or Hamad for weeks leading up to Saturday’s shootings, he said. “I work seven days a week,” he added. “I spent $3,000 to move.”

The Howland Police Department’s statements about the origin of the feud have focused more on one of Brian Hendrickson’s sons being “upset with mom and upset” with Hamad about Tracy leaving Brian Hendrickson and becoming involved with Hamad.

Bryce Hendrickson remains in the hospital with serious injuries after being shot in the face and arm. Brian Hendrickson said Bryce has undergone facial reconstruction surgery and is improving.

Shively was “grazed” by one bullet, police said, and suffered much less serious injuries.

April Trent-Vokes, 42, is also improving after being shot in the head, arms, chest and legs, Brian Hendrickson said. The Hendricksons and Williams are distantly related to Trent-Vokes and her sons through marriage, Brian Hendrickson said.

Williams’ mother, Kristen Hendrickson Williams, wrote on her Facebook page Monday her son “took a ride in a vehicle thinking he was going to visit distant relatives here from Florida, not knowing he was walking into a feud that didn’t involve him.”

Brian Hendrickson said he believes Trent-Vokes and her sons moved to the Warren area from Florida no more than a month ago.