Judge Throws Book At Gang Affiliate

A punch over a pickle cost Michael Henderson an extra chunk of his life.

That, and the matter of threatening a witness.

Henderson, an ​“affiliate” of New Haven’s brutal Grape Street Crips gang, is now looking at a larger stint in federal prison than he might otherwise have had in part because of how he reacted to a guard taking a pickle from him.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor A. Bolden Thursday sentenced the 25-year-old Henderson to nearly nine years in prison for robbing a gun store in 2015, threatening a witness and then lying to a federal investigator about his participation in the crime.

After deliberating on the defendant’s traumatic upbringing and lengthy criminal record, the judge ultimately decided to apply the maximum sentence recommended by federal sentencing guideline calculations in large part because of the defendant’s harmful and anti-social behavior since his arrest three years ago. That behavior included tampering with the witness and assaulting a prison guard who threw away a pickle that he had found in the defendant’s cell.

The U.S. attorney prosecuting the case also said the government thinks that the defendant, Michael Henderson, shot and killed a man three days before he was arrested for the gun store robbery, and therefore presented a clear and continued threat to his community if given a shorter sentence.

“Your life will not change unless you change it,” Judge Bolden said in a sentencing explanation that referenced both civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and the South African-born comedian Trevor Noah. ​“I urge you to love yourself.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale was less sanguine in his assessment of Henderson.

“He doesn’t stop,” he said. ​“He just keeps going. … This man has no regard for authority.”

In a fourth-floor courtroom at the federal court house at 915 Lafayette Blvd. in Bridgeport, Judge Bolden sentenced Henderson, a Hill neighborhood native, to 105 months in prison.

Henderson has already served three years of that eight-year-and-nine-month sentence at the New Haven Correctional Center, the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Conn., and the Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Conn.

Bolden also sentenced Henderson to three years of supervisory release after he completes his time in prison.

Thursday’s sentencing hearing was the last courtroom date for a case that saw charges related to a 2015 gun store robbery compounded by a series of actions and decisions that exacerbated Henderson’s recommended sentence and his standing before the court.

In October 2017, Henderson pled guilty to one count of stealing a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer, one count of possession of a stolen firearm, and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Henderson also pled guilty in July 2016 to making a false statement to a federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agent who was investigating the initial gun robbery.

But it was Henderson’s subsequent intimidation of a witness, obstruction of justice, and assault of a prison guard that wound up earning him nearly double the prison time of what had initially been recommended by the federal government.

Throughout the hearing, Kale framed the government’s case against Henderson as part of a broader effort to reduce gun violence in New Haven by locking up the most violent offenders. ​“A significant ancillary of New Haven’s effort at ridding itself of gun violence,” he wrote in one of the government’s documents submitted to the court, ​“has called upon law enforcement to prosecute and seek the lengthy incapacitation of those who refuse to give up guns and violence and to remove them from society.”

Henderson, he argued, is just such a person.

Gun Store Robbery

The underlying event that lead to Henderson’s arrest and conviction was a robbery of the Woodbridge Firearms & Trading Post in Woodbridge. that took place early in the morning on June 17, 2015.

As laid out in the government’s sentencing memorandum, written by U.S. Attorney John Durham and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kale, the robbery occurred just after 3 a.m. at the Selden Road gun store.

Click here to download the full memorandum.

According to the video surveillance footage from Woodbridge Firearms and nearby stores, four individuals pulled up to the shopping area’s parking lot in a Volkswagen Passat and a dark colored sedan prior to the burglary.

At 3:08 a.m. one of the individuals backed the Volkswagen through the store’s front door and window. One minute later, that same individual climbed into the store and used a heavy object to break open a glass display case that contained handguns.

The individual was not wearing gloves, reads the government’s report, and wore a ​“a half face mask that had a pointed nose and also a sweat shirt that had a very distinctive print of ducks on it.”

When the Woodbridge Police arrived several minutes later, they found four handguns missing: a 9mm Springfield handgun, two .38 caliber Harrington and Richard handguns, and a .32 caliber Harrington and Richard handgun.

The officers took DNA swabs from the glass display cabinet, from the hard object used to break it open, and from the Volkswagen. They also soon found out that the Volkswagen, which had been left behind at the scene of the crime, had been reported as stolen just two days earlier in New Haven.

On Aug. 7, 2015, the State of Connecticut Forensic Laboratory received confirmation from the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) that a cologne bottle found inside the stolen Volkswagen belonged to Henderson.

The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) arrested Henderson on Oct. 16, 2015 for a larceny charge related to the stolen Volkswagen. That same day, ATF Special Agent Brian Ross and a colleague interviewed Henderson at the NHPD headquarters and asked him about the stolen Volkswagen. Henderson said the only time he had been in a stolen car was back in 2013, when he was picked up for a separate gun charge.

The state’s forensic laboratory received confirmation from the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) several days later that a DNA swab collected from the Volkswagen on the night of the robbery also belonged to Henderson.

Ross then reviewed Henderson’s criminal history and found that he had one Aug. 2013 felony conviction for carrying a pistol without a permit, for which he served 18 months in prison and three years on probation.

Ross also found on Henderson’s cellphone, which had been seized by the NHPD during the Oct. 16 arrest, two Facebook Messenger exchanges from June 17, 2015 and June 28, 2015 in which Henderson appeared to be asking two different people for .32 and .38 caliber handgun ammunition, which matched the calibers of the handguns that had been stolen from Woodbridge Firearms on June 17.

During a March 2016 interview with Deputy United States Marshal Matthew Parker and Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Lee Dayton, Henderson said he is not a member of New Haven’s Grape Street Crips gang, but he does hang around with a lot of Grape Street gang members.

“Because that’s my neighborhood,” he said. ​“I’m from the north side of the Hill.”

Witnesses, The Arrest, And Suspicion Of Murder

On Oct. 22, 2015, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Garfinkel signed a complaint and arrest warrant charging Henderson with making a false statement to federal law enforcement when he had told Ross and his ATF colleague six days earlier that he had not been in a stolen car since 2013.

At the same time, Ross was investigating the murder of 19-year-old Hill resident Maurice Richardson, who had been shot three times in the head on Oct. 13, 2015 on Davenport Avenue.

Henderson emerged as a suspect when a fellow inmate at the New Haven Correctional Center told the ATF that he had heard Henderson bragging about both the murder and the gun robbery while in lock-up. That inmate also said Henderson had made threats against Ross and Garfinkel. Henderson allegedly told another inmate that he was trying to get information out to two fellow Hill residents, Little Joe and KB, about the location of the stolen guns.

In a March 2016 interview with the U.S. Marshal’s Service and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Henderson denied any involvement in Richardson’s murder, but referenced that Richardson had been shot three times in the head.

“Because Richardson’s body was discovered by police after a report of shots fired,” the government’s sentencing memorandum reads, ​“and not by a witness or bystander, no member of the public was allowed to see the body. No one except the murderer had knowledge of the number of times Richardson had been shot.”

On June 20, 2016, New Haven Police Detective David Zaweski and Assistant U.S. attorneys interviewed Semaj Grief, who was Richardson’s girlfriend. Grier told the officers that Henderson had spoken with Richardson on June 17, 2015, right after a car accident had occurred on Vernon Street, where Richardson lived.

Grier said she overheard Henderson tell her late boyfriend that he had broken into a gun store earlier in the day and had stolen guns from a display case. Henderson then asked Richardson if he had any ammunition for the guns, but Richardson said he didn’t.

On Aug. 23, 2016, a grand jury charged Henderson with the three federal counts related to the gun store robbery. During an Aug. 31, 2016 hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons, the judge warned Henderson not to engage in any direct or third-party contact with any of the witnesses for the burglary case.

A Pickle

But on Oct. 7, 2016, Henderson did just that. Two weeks earlier, the government provided Henderson’s attorney with the portion of Grier’s statement to law enforcement about how she had overheard the Henderson bragging about the robbery to her late boyfriend Richardson.

Henderson then mailed a handwritten letter to a friend in West Haven in which he asked her to reach out to Grier.

“But there whole case is base off of Semaj snitching on me,” he wrote, ​“saying she overheard a convo I was having about breaking in the gun store WHICH IS NOT TRUE everybody knows why she telling on me because she doesn’t like me due to the fact she thinks I had involvement in killing Moe.”

He then asks his friend to reach out to Grier via Facebook Messenger, get Grier to write that she doesn’t like Richardson, screenshot the conversation, and then send it to his lawyer.

“DO NOT ARGUE W/HER!!!” Henderson write. ​“STAY CIVIL.”

Henderson also asked his friend to reach out to another nicknamed Eagle and ask him to put similar pressure on Grier to confess to having it in for Henderson.

Soon after Grier found out that Henderson had been spreading the word that she was a witness against him, she informed law enforcement that she no longer wanted to cooperate with the government and testify against Henderson.

But that successful bout of witness tampering was not the only post-arrest behavior that the government singled out as warranting a longer sentence for Henderson.

On Dec. 3, 2016, while incarcerated at Wyatt, Henderson punched Sgt. A. Santos as he was leaving Henderson’s cell because Santos was going to throw out a pickle he had found in the cell. The government’s sentencing memorandum says that Henderson’s punch sent Santos to the hospital, caused a concussion, and has resulted in repeated migraines which Santos did not suffer from before the punch.

“In case there was any doubt that the defendant is an unremorseful brute,” the memorandum reads, ​“the defendant tells the Captain investigating the incident that ​‘The man in me, growing up how I grew up, I had no choice but to hit him,” before adding ​“you know how my anger is dog.” … If the defendant is willing to assault a corrections officer while in prison because the officer ​“disrespected” him by throwing away or confiscating a ​‘fluff cuff’ (cup) with a pickle in it … the defendant has NO ability to function, at least in the foreseeable future, in society or to be supervised while on release.”

In court on Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kale pressed the government’s argument that Henderson deserved to be locked up for significantly longer than the 46 to 57 months that the District of Connecticut’s Probation Office had initially recommended in its Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) for the gun store robbery charges.

He said that Henderson’s post-arrest behavior, threatening a witness and assaulting a correctional officer, proves that he is not ready to reintegrate into society.

“The defendant has made choices that make him a danger to the community when he is in it,” the government’s sentencing memorandum reads. ​“His presence in the community poisons it.”

“A Horrible Start In Life”

In Henderson’s defense, Glastonbury attorney John Maxwell tried to convince Judge Bolden on Thursday that his client deserved some leniency because of his troubled upbringing.

“This gentleman has made many poor decisions in his life and accomplished very little,” Maxwell said. ​“But he really had a horrible start in life.”

Maxwell, following the same argument he laid out in a memorandum in aid of sentencing that he submitted to the court on June 20, went on to explain the life that Henderson has led in his 25 years.

Click here to read Maxwell’s memorandum.

He said Henderson had been taken from his mother by the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) soon after being born in August 1992 because of her addiction to crack cocaine. Her mother’s parental rights were terminated in 1997 because she did not appear for supervised visits. His biological father, Maxwell said, was never a presence in Henderson’s life during his youth.

“The results were somewhat predictable,” he told the judge. He said Henderson’s assaultive and anti-social behavior, frequent outbursts, and oppositional defiance corresponded to a range of disorders that he was subsequently diagnosed with, including Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Reactive Attachment Disorder.

Henderson had a total of 32 different placements in residential programs throughout his 14 years under DCF.

Maxwell argued that Henderson deserved some sympathy for his traumatic and itinerant childhood.

“He didn’t bring on these disorders on himself,” Maxwell argued.

“The $64,000 question,” Maxwell said, ​“is: can he lead a law-abiding life? … I submit to the court that he can.”

He noted that Henderson describes himself as caring, observant, emotional, and thoughtful; that he wants to get a GED, a job, and be present for his infant son in the way that his father was never available for him.

Maxwell said that in his multiple interviews with Henderson during his client’s two years and nine months in pre-sentenced detention, Henderson has always been respectful, pleasant, and conversant on topics related and unrelated to his case.

“He’s capable of presenting himself in a law-abiding, pleasant way,” he said.

Furthermore, Maxwell said, Henderson has had time over the past three years to reflect on the changes he needs to make in order to live a productive, social life.

“Six, seven years, that’s a long time to be locked up, judge,” he said, arguing for the lower end of sentencing range. ​“And it does send a message.”

Three of Henderson’s biological siblings and his infant niece showed up at court on Thursday to show their support for Henderson.

His older brother Lamaar read a note to the judge that was written by his younger sister Kenisha.

“I’d like you to know my brother is not a bad person,” he said. ​“Just looking for love in the streets, like other young black men.”

He said Henderson is a sweet, loving person with a great sense of humor, and that he is a family-oriented person.

“He’s committed a crime and has to do the time,” Lamaar read, but he implored the judge to be lenient in his sentence so that Henderson would have a chance to form a meaningful relationship with his young son.

Standing in an orange jumpsuit with four braids of hair running down to his shoulders, Henderson apologized to the judge, to his family, and to the government in a soft, deep voice.

“These last three years have been a learning experience,” he said. ​“I know it doesn’t matter what happens today. I’ve got to make a change.”

“Born A Crime”

Judge Bolden, a Westville resident and former New Haven corporation counsel, ultimately decided to hand down a 105-month sentence, which was the high end of the federal sentencing guideline calculation for Henderson’s conviction after factoring in his post-arrest witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

But through his 10-minute closing speech, Bolden implored Henderson to focus as much on breaking through the prison bars in his mind as on the nearly nine-year sentence he will be serving behind actual bars.

“I don’t just look at the crime,” Bolden said in describing how he came to his sentencing judgment, ​“I have to look at you as an individual, at the opportunities you have had and quite frankly have not had.”

He acknowledged that Henderson has lived in an incredibly challenging life in his first 25 years, and that those challenges have likely resulted in Henderson’s inability to imagine, let alone realize, a better life for himself.

Bolden cited civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and South African-born comedian Trevor Noah in his exhortation for Henderson to will himself above his circumstances.

“Before you can love other people adequately,” he said, quoting Dr. King, ​“you have to love yourself properly.”

He said that criminal behavior is often a reflection of a weakness and an impulse to inflict pain on someone else because one is feeling so much pain within oneself. True strength, he said, comes from facing one’s pain head on and learning to surround oneself with loving companions ​“who are trying to make something.”

He said Noah’s book Born A Crime, in which the comedian describes his birth to a white South African father and a black South African mother as a literal crime under apartheid, provides an instructive model for how to ​“live a life of freedom long before freedom exists.”

“I Love You”

After adjourning the hearing, Bolden descended from the bench, walked over to Henderson, shook his hand and looked him in the eye and said, ​“I wish you well.”

Henderson, turning to wave goodbye to his brother and sisters and niece, said, ​“I’ll be back in 10. I love you.”

Outside the courthouse, Henderson’s sister Mikesha said, ​“He does need a minute to sit down and reflect.”

His sister Margeaux said she thought it was good for Henderson to hear some of Bolden’s encouragement to free himself from the prison in his mind.

But, both sister said, they wished the judge had given him a lighter sentence.

Mikesha said she and Henderson and three of their other biological siblings had all found one another through social media after aging out of the foster care system. She said they planned to stay in touch with Henderson through letters and visits.

Despite his criminal record, Lamaar said, ​“my brother’s a caring and giving guy.”