'Electrical burning smell': Jurors see gruesome crime scene in Lake Morton killings

A crime-scene technician took the witness stand, and her photos of the disheveled and bloody home on Lake Morton was shown to the jury on Tuesday during the double-murder trial of Marcelle Jerrill Waldon in Bartow.

Waldon, 39, is facing 11 charges, including two capital first-degree murder charges, in connection with the killing of former Lakeland City Commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and her husband, David Henderson.

The couple were found dead from multiple stab wounds, jewelry was stolen and personal checks missing from the picturesque home at 137 Lake Morton Drive on Nov. 10, 2020. The state is seeking the death penalty for Waldon if he's convicted.

Crime-scene technician Kimberly Patterson of the Lakeland Police Department revealed several additional items as evidence against Waldon during her testimony, including the most graphic photos the jury had seen during the first two days of the trial.

A bloody house and an 'electrical burning smell'

Assistant State Attorney Mark Levine led the questioning of Patterson and most of the other witnesses, with cross examination mostly conducted by defense attorney Debra Tuomey.

Retracing the steps of police who discovered the bodies, Patterson recalled entering the ground floor of the home.

In the Hendersons' kitchen, she noticed an odor with an electric-like smell that months later she would connect with the cell phones found melted in the microwave as family went through the home Jan. 10, 2021.

She then described the action as most likely a “microwave bomb” designed to explode inside a microwave and serve as a spark to set off gas from the stove and oven that had its knobs turned on. But it did not work.

“That explained the burning smell,” Patterson said. It was an “electrical, burning smell.”

The prosecution has maintained that Waldon turned on the gas before leaving the home with a bag of jewelry and driving away in David Henderson’s white Audi A6.

Tuomey countered by asking Patterson, with more than 26 years of crime scene processing, about the amount of her fire-investigation training.

She recalled some coursework in the area. She added that the fire marshal had been called to process the torched remains of the Audi found in a field along Oregon Avenue near Lakeland. But the fire marshal had not conducted the investigation into the microwave.

The prosecution maintains the stolen Audi was burned to conceal evidence and that Waldon tried to light the house on fire to cover up crimes.

There was also a leaf from a plastic plant observed on the floor by the stove, she said. An alarm system nearby was not powered, and drawers in the kitchen were open.

An otherwise meticulous house

Patterson noticed throughout the house several items out of place, including a cushion from a sofa on a coffee table, and a place mat out of place in a home that was otherwise meticulously kept and clean.

She observed uneaten takeout breakfast items from Fat Jack’s and an iced tea that no longer contained ice cubes, but it had condensation on the cup. She also noticed a plastic bracelet and a light in another location.

A pair of Nike shoes belonging to David Henderson, which he used during his regular routine of early morning walks around Lake Morton, were neatly placed side by side near the stairs on the second floor.

Tuomey asked her about another pair of shoes found at the house that neither the witness nor the prosecution had mentioned, a pair of Fila shoes, which Patterson said were sent to the FDLE for processing.

The defense also submitted evidence of shoe impressions developed by the crime scene unit.

Patterson spent most of her time on the stand describing the various locations of blood in the third-floor master bedroom before crime-scene photos and a video recording of her walk-through were projected on a TV facing the jury. Several jurors grimaced at the condition of the dead bodies and at least one appeared emotional at the sight.

Edie Henderson was found with her a reddish colored belt around her ankles, one of her arms was at a right angle under her body as she lay with her head toward the headboard. Just as police noticed the day before, blood was dripping on the floor, and had splattered on the headboard, the wall and ceiling.

She had also suffered ligature wounds to her wrists and a tie was wrapped around the light on the nightstand. The drawers on the nightstand were open, and so were the ones on an entertainment console for a big screen TV in the bedroom.

She had several stab wounds in her chest and her neck had been slashed with a knife. Patterson said the largest of the slots in the kitchen butcher block of knives was empty and she suspected that was the knife used to kill the Hendersons. That weapon has never been recovered.

Patterson observed drops of blood between the bed and the bathroom shower and she testified the female victim had likely just left the shower and had been using a hair dryer nearby and placed her eyeglasses on a counter. The block to a Apple charger was found on the floor next to the bed.

The drawers of a jewelry box were open and empty and a checkbook in a purse on the nightstand had blood smeared on it, she said. Two checks were missing, and a ledger was found without any record of the date, name nor reason for the two checks, but all other checks from the Hendersons’ joint account had been meticulously recorded.

David Henderson was found in the closet lying face down with his head turned to the side. He had also suffered multiple stab wounds and lacerations to his neck and back.

He was wearing a white T-shirt and socks. Blood had pooled in front of his head that was several hours old, creating an orange-yellow halo around the darkened pool. There was also a bloody towel found on a countertop below a mirror in the closet.

A wadded-up glove was found by the crime scene unit in a corner of the bedroom. Patterson said DNA was not found in the bedroom. Nor were fingerprints.

The defendant's movements that day

The remainder of the testimony came from police and people who walked or worked near the Hendersons’ home.

Levine asked Lakeland police Lt. Brian Wallace about his interactions with Jarvis Collins, whom he had been texting and calling via cell phones. Wallace’s cell phone contained metadata that located Collins as he drove around town with Waldon.

A text of David Henderson’s bank card was received from the Relax Inn, where Waldon was staying with Collins the day after the killings, Wallace said. He said Collins and Waldon also drove to Plant City, where they tried unsuccessfully to pawn jewelry stolen from the Hendersons, according to the phone metadata.

While Waldon was arrested at the Relax Inn, he had been staying at the Lake Wire Inn the night before the double killings. It was there that police found a loaded silver revolver in a Nike drawstring bag. Police believed the gun was used by the defendant to force Edie Henderson to write at least one $5,000 check, which had been backdated.

Another electronic correspondence showing the time and date located the pair at a 7-11 gas station in Lakeland, where the prosecution said Waldon poured gas into a bottle and used the gas as an accelerant to torch the interior of the Audi.

For his part in the early investigation, Wallace obtained video surveillance from nearby businesses showing David Henderson walking around Lake Morton as he did most mornings.

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Tuomey asked Wallace whether he encouraged Collins to seek reward money for his information on Waldon via the Crimestoppers organization.

She also asked him about the multiple injuries and scabs on Collins’ hands, legs, arms, ankle, forehead and other parts of his body, which Collins told Wallace were caused by a seizure and fall down a flight of steps. About 6 p.m. the day of the killings, Collins had visited the emergency room at Lakeland Regional Hospital. Among his texts to Wallace, he sent him a hospital bracelet, Wallace said.

In silence and dramatic effect, Tuomey stood in front of the jury holding up the pictures of the many scabs on Collins' body, which had been photographed by police investigators.

Seeing the defendant around Lake Morton

Another witness Levine called was a woman who knew David Henderson from her many walks around Lake Morton, up to two hours per day, seven days a week.

Two other women, Nancy Fahlsing and Dawn Sutorus, who worked at Stahl and Associates along Lake Morton Drive, also recalled several observations in the days leading up to the killings.

Fahlsing said a man fitting the description of Waldon, whom she pointed to as wearing a purple shirt in court on Tuesday, had stopped her early Nov. 10 in the insurance company’s parking lot to ask her the time.

She told him it was 7:17 a.m. after using her cell phone to look. He was polite and said thank you and walked away. But she said she was scared by the encounter, especially after word spread of the double murders very close to the insurance office. Not long after, a co-worker showed her a picture of the suspect.

“I immediately started crying,” Fahlsing said. She told Levine the chance encounter with the defendant and the fact that two people were dead upset her.

She recalled he was wearing jeans and he carried a dark red or maroon duffle bag.

Tuomey told her that people’s memories are not like a video recording and asked whether police had shown her a photo lineup of potential murder suspects to identify the man she encountered. Fahlsing said no.

Sutorus also worked as a receptionist at Staal and was a regular walker with her colleagues during mid-morning breaks each day sometime after 10 a.m. They frequently passed the Hendersons' home because they like the “pretty scenery.”

She also said she thought she had seen Waldon in the neighborhood and in a former career as a bank teller was trained to remember important details if the bank was robbed. Unlike other witnesses who reported the suspect wore jeans, she said he was wearing black cargo pants the day of the murder and a green shirt, which later in the day he had changed to a red shirt.

Sutorus recalled she remembered seeing Waldon in the area the day before the killings from her workspace, about 20 to 25 feet from the sidewalk.  

During a comfort break for the jury, a note from one of the jurors was passed to Abdoney asking that Waldon remove a COVID mask he had placed over his nose and mouth Tuesday during the proceeding, which had had not worn during the first day. The juror said the mask blocked her ability to judge his demeanor.

Abdoney called the juror to the courtroom and told her under Florida law that unless Waldon takes the witness stand, the jury cannot consider his demeanor from the defense table as he observed the proceedings nor can the lawyers in the case.

Further, Abdoney asked whether she had shared this with other jurors, and she said she had not. He asked her to not share her concerns with the remainder of the jury.

The third day of the trial is continuing Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Jurors see photos, video of gruesome scene in Lake Morton killings