Witnesses testify to helping Marcelle Waldon pawn jewelry after 2020 Lake Morton killings

Two prosecution witnesses testified Thursday that they drove around with Marcelle Jerrill Waldon pawning jewelry in the day after the 2020 stabbing deaths of former Lakeland City Commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and her husband, David Henderson in their Lake Morton home.

Waldon, 39, is facing multiple charges, including two first-degree murder charges. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Waldon is convicted.

At the Hendersons’ picturesque home at 137 Lake Morton Drive, police and prosecutors allege that Waldon brutally stabbed the couple and robbed them of their jewelry, took two bank checks, credit cards and then drove off in the husband’s white Audi. The stolen car was later recovered torched in a field along Oregon Avenue near Lakeland.

For more than three hours on Thursday, the prosecution and defense grilled Jarvis Michael Collins, 40, of Lakeland about his interaction with Waldon following the killings.

Lakeland Police Department detectives had arrested Collins 10 days after the killings, the Ledger reported previously. He was charged with six felonies, including being an accessory after the fact of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and dealing in stolen property.

He has since bonded out of the Polk County Jail, but he had originally been held on a combined $135,000 bail, Polk County Jail records showed.

'Did you murder the two folks in the house'

Police originally thought Collins was involved in the murders. But on Thursday in court, Assistant State Attorney Mark Levine flat out asked him, “Did you murder the two folks in the house on the lake?”

“No,” Collins said.

He would later testify that he engaged in text messages with Waldon the day of the killings and drove around Lakeland and Plant City with Waldon to pawn jewelry that he said Waldon gave him. The items included a diamond pendant, rope chain and wedding band.

They were driven around by Roderick Burgess, a longtime friend of Collins and another witness called on Thursday.

Collins used at least one of the Hendersons’ credit cards he took from Waldon’s room at the Relax Inn in Lakeland to buy four pairs of tennis shoes for himself and at least one other relative, it was revealed in court from documents and his testimony. He also racked up $1,200 in charges on the Plenty of Fish dating website.

The day of the murders, Collins texted Waldon from his bedroom at his mother’s Chestnut Apartments home, he said. In between texts, he played video games, watched porn and texted his mother asking her to fetch him some cigarettes.

Waldon eventually texted him that he was getting a room at the Relax Inn, so Collins called Burgess for a ride.

Collins said he encountered Waldon on the day of the killings pacing nervously in and out of the door of Room 129 of the Lakeland motel. He said he didn’t know Waldon well enough to know his name — referring to him as his “home boy” — nor could he determine whether the anxious behavior was normal.

As Collins entered the room and sat on the bed, Waldon kept changing the channel on the TV back to the news channels. At this point in their relationship, Collins said in court he did not know about the double homicides.

Then Waldon picked up an Audi key fob and Collins said he started to connect the dots about Waldon’s possible involvement and because of Collins' felony record, he voiced a warning.

“Whatever you got going on, don’t get me in it,” Collins said during his testimony.

With the key fob still in his hand, Collins testified that Waldon told him, “He had to go burn up the car.“

That was the last time Collins saw the key fob, he said in court.

With Burgess waiting outside the motel room, the pair drove to a 7-11 gas station on Memorial Boulevard and Waldon bought them $8 worth of gas. While he stood at the pump, Waldon placed a silver revolver on the trunk of the car, Collins testified.

“Bro. What you doing putting a gun on the car. The police station is two blocks away,” Collins said, before Waldon placed the firearm back into a brown case.

At some point after police cars had swarmed the Hendersons' home in response to the killings, Waldon ask the pair to drive near Lake Morton, Collins testified. As they pulled up near the Mr. Fish restaurant on Palmetto Street, just around the corner from the crime scene, they saw a sea of police cars and yellow tape.

According to Burgess, Collins then started “cursing out” Waldon, who was smirking and acting like he didn’t care. Burgess also recalled the conversation.

“What you got going on?” Collins asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Waldon replied.

Heated exchanges in the courtroom

But as the defense took its turn asking Collins about his interactions with Waldon, his statements to investigators and his use of the Hendersons' bank card, Judge J. Kevin Abdoney briefly had to stop the proceedings and gave the jury a break to referee the lawyers on both sides in the most heated exchanges so far in the trial.

Abdoney also told Collins twice in a firm voice to “stop” during his testimony, during which he seemed confused or his responses contained contradictory and rambling answers as defense attorney Debra Tuomey asked him questions that often required a yes or no answer.

Since the trial started Monday, Waldon’s defense has been trying to chisel away at the state’s evidence in an attempt to cast doubt about Waldon’s alleged role in the killings. Collins' testimony was in its crosshairs on Thursday.

Tuomey asked about the immunity he enjoyed while under subpoena as a witness, meaning even if he confessed to crimes on the witness stand, they could not be used against him later. Collins seemed confused by her line of questioning, and Levine objected to her questions. Eventually, Abdoney gave the jury a short break from the courtroom.

The rationale for witness immunity was found by the attorneys in a U.S. Supreme Court discussion during a jury break. It was to foster truthful responses.

After the break, Collins continued to say he did not understand or follow her questions, which led Tuomey to repeat some questions multiple times. That raised the ire of Levine, who again objected to her multiple attempts to extract answers from the witness.

Levine is the prosecutor in the case against Collins, she said. Neither Levine nor Collins said they had a deal for him to receive a lighter sentence.

More fireworks erupted when Tuomey pulled out a bond reduction form and showed it to Collins. The form contained a narrative section and a signature. She asked whether he recalled the form that led to his release on bond from the Polk County Jail. Collins stubbornly replied: “That’s not my writing.”

She asked again, then again and he kept repeating, “That’s not my writing.”

After she pressed him more for an answer, he initially said no, but then later said, “That’s my signature.” Tuomey had noted it was a notarized signature.

Tuomey also explained to Collins, that he was facing life in prison because of his combined lengthy criminal record and the allegations against him in connection with his pawning items taken from the Hendersons' home and using their credit cards – offenses all committed after the killings.

Lying on the witness stand would give him an even longer sentence in jail, she said. And he could end up in prison for another 30 years.

With the jury present, Levine stood up and said, “That’s not true.”

Abdoney then said Levine was not to present evidence before the jury took another break.

Still, Collins said, “I didn’t receive any special treatment.”

Collins also was injured in a fall down some steps at the Relax Inn, and police had documented his injuries with photographs. He said he had no memory of the fall and his prior memory was standing outside Waldon’s room smoking a cigarette. But Tuomey pointed out that Waldon’s room was on the first floor.

Tuomey was not finished. She presented transcripts of interviews at the police station in which Collins told investigators information about the killings that had not yet been made public or distributed to the news media.

One such statement was, “You can tie someone up and take their shit without killing them.” She said the public had not been told the victims were tied up.

Questioning the police

Another witness in the trial Thursday included Lakeland police Sgt. Laura Dunn, who interviewed the Hendersons' neighbors the day of the killings and went to the Relax Inn as that crime scene was being processed.

The defense has been raising the specter of potential cross contamination of biological evidence at two of the crime scenes — the house and the motel room.

No DNA results from the Hendersons’ residence have been submitted as evidence during trial, despite the prosecution telling the jury a sharp knife from a kitchen butcher block was used in the killings, a weapon that had the potential to cut a suspect as he is stabbing someone, thus leaving DNA at the scene.

But Dunn did not enter the house, she testified.

“Did you walk through Edie Henderson’s blood?” Levine asked her.

“No,” she said.

The only DNA discussed in court was collected on the drawstring of a red Nike bag, which contained Waldon’s and Edie Henderson’s DNA.

Dunn’s role at the motel was to write down items the crime-scene technicians had collected as evidence. She testified she did not step on any evidence, even items placed on the ground outside Room 129 such as the drawstring bag or the silver revolver.

The prosecution could rest its case by Tuesday. The trial will resume Monday.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: 2 men say they helped Waldon pawn jewelry after Lake Morton killings