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THE COAST NEWS
JAN. 27, 2012
ODD Man found guilty of fatally shooting his wife FILES
by CHUCK SHEPHERD
By Shelli DeRobertis
Like a glove Traditional bridge replacement on as prominent a highway as Interstate 15 in Mesquite, Nev., has generally required rerouting traffic for as long as a year, but the new “accelerated” technology in January necessitated detours for less than a week. Excited engineers traveled in from around the country to watch the old bridge be demolished and the new one (which had been built on a platform off to the side) be slid into place using hydraulic jacks and Tefloncoated metal beams — lubricated with Dawn dishwashing detergent to glide them smoothly into the old frame. The Nevada Department of Transportation estimated that the accelerated process saved commuters about $12 million in time and fuel costs.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit! “(Our critics) are absolutely right. We are professional liars,” said Everett Davis, founder of the Internet-based Reference Store, which supplies pumped-up, but false, resumes for job-seekers having trouble landing work. Davis and associates are, he told Houston’s KRIV-TV in November, ex-investigators schooled in deception and therefore good at fooling human resources personnel who follow up on the bogus work claims. Davis admitted he would even disguise a customer’s past criminal record — but not if the job is in public safety, health care or schools. Western nations and foundations have tried for decades to build sewage treatment plants in subSaharan Africa, with little success (since many countries lack stable governments to assess operating fees), and to this day, raw sewage is still merely collected and dumped, either in rivers or directly onto beaches, such as the notorious (and formerly beautiful) Lavender Hill in Ghana. U.S. entrepreneurs recently established Waste Enterprises in Ghana to build the first-ever fecalsludge-to-biodiesel plant (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Feces undiluted by water, and then heated, is highly concentrated and more resembles coal than the goo that Americans associate with sewage.
Cutting-Edge Science Medical Marvels: (1) The British Medical Journal reported in December that a 76-year-old woman had been unbothered until recently by the felt-tip pen she accidentally swallowed 25 years earlier. It was removed without complication, and, though the plastic was flaky, the pen still had an ink supply and was “usable.”
VISTA — A jury deliberated for one day before reaching a guilty verdict Jan. 24 for Dontaye Henderson for the first-degree murder of his wife. The fatal shooting took place on New Year’s Day 2011 while the family was getting ready for church at their Oceanside apartment. Henderson, 29, was also found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm relating to the murder of Tamara Henderson, 25, at 2360 Paseo De Laura. The shooting happened in front of the couple’s 15-month-old son and Tamara’s 6-year-old daughter. The charge carries a prison term of 82 years to life, and San Diego County Superior Court Judge Robert Kearney set the sentencing for Feb. 23. “All along I believed he did this on purpose. All along I believed he’ll get what he deserves,” said Elsie Billups, the victim’s mother, before the trial was over. Billups said nothing less will suffice than for Dontaye Henderson to spend the rest of his life in jail. Billups and her daughter were very close, she said. They would attend church and do things together, such
as go out to lunch. “He went through a number of steps to get that bullet through the spine of his wife,” said prosecutor Keith Watanabe during closing statements. Henderson testified at his own trial that he accidentally shot his wife in the chest. He said in court that they argued while he threatened suicide with a loaded gun that fired when his wife grabbed it to get it away from him. Henderson spoke in a monotone voice, not showing any signs of sorrow as he talked about the shooting of his wife, even as he described her dying and the calls he made to 911. But the prosecutor presented witnesses and the series of events that took place both before and after the fatal shooting, and the jury didn’t believe it was accidental. “In no way, shape or form did he ever mention an accident,” Watanabe said. “It wasn’t written in reports.” In summarizing the events, Watanabe said Henderson pulled the trigger once and the gun clicked, then he made a statement to his wife that if “that went
Dontaye Henderson, right, confers with his attorney during court proceedings. Henderson was found guilty Jan. 24 the first-degree murder of his wife Tamara Henderson New Year’s Day 2011. Photo by Shelli DeRobertis
bang, you wouldn’t be talking all that s---.” His wife continued to argue with him; he racked another round in the gun, shot her, lied to the 911 operators, left his wife for dead, and ran away, Watanbe said. Shortly afterward a text
message was sent to a former girlfriend from a phone Henderson used that said, “I’ve left my wife for good. I’m flying out to see you.” That woman testified in court, along with several other people, such as a neighbor, detectives, an ex-wife, a
co-worker and even Tamara Henderson’s daughter Niya Mitchell, now 7, who was in the apartment with her toddler brother when her mother was shot. Some of the testimonies described Henderson as a man who deceived those he knew and told blatant lies, and others spoke of his violent actions. Deputy Public Defender Jack Campbell argued in court that his client, Dontaye Henderson, should be considered guilty of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a lesser penalty and stems from a reckless or negligent act. “She grabs the gun. It goes off,” Campbell said. He told the jury the act was reprehensible, but not murderous. Since 2003, Henderson had been in and out of prison first for a spousal rape conviction of a former wife and then for parole violations. But the jury was not allowed to hear about the 2003 rape conviction, which was ordered before the trial by the judge. Billups has been raising the victim’s two children since the tragedy occurred.
Program planned to monitor surf spots for 2 years By Bianca Kaplanek
COAST CITIES — With a blessing from the California Coastal Commission and San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, the San Diego Surfrider Foundation will monitor a half dozen popular surf spots to assess any impact from added sand. By the end of this month cameras should be installed at six locations — all but one in North County — to monitor activity as part of the second regional beach sand project, or RBSP II. “As part of our comments on regional beach sand project two, the Coastal Commission agreed with us that surf-spot monitoring would be ideal with this large-scale beach nourishment,” said Julia ChunnHeer, campaign coordinator for the local Surfrider chapter. “They are requiring that it be reported as part of the replenishment project but they tasked Surfrider with creating the monitoring and compiling the study,” she
said. “We decided if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right, and that’s when we reached out to CoastalCOMS to find a scientific way to study impacts to surfing.” CoastalCOMS is a 7year-old company founded in Australia that uses camera networks for coastal monitoring solutions by analyzing environmental variables and their impacts to surfing over time. “We’ve done this a lot,” co-owner Tim Chandler said during a presentation at the Jan. 11 Solana Beach City Council meeting, adding that the company has video archives throughout the world in areas such as Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Texas, Florida, California and Hawaii. The company has had its results published in scientific journals and representatives give presentations regularly at ocean conferences, Chandler said. “We’re hoping to sort of put a toe in the water with this and give a few measure-
ments but then also have a good baseline understanding of what you might be able to do with some of the infrastructure that’s already in place on the California coastline,” he said. Cameras are set to be installed at Imperial Beach, Fletcher Cove and Seaside Reef in Solana Beach, Cardiff Reef and D Street in Encinitas and Tamarack Beach in Carlsbad. The goal is to provide an assessment of county surf spots — primarily ones close to RBSP II receiver sites — and track their response to the influx of sand from the replenishment project set to take place April 1. Surfrider also hopes to replace anecdotal evidence, which is often unreliable because of the wide range of surfing skill and experience of those reporting it, with observations from a consistent framework of surf-spot monitoring, Chunn-Heer said. There are five objectives of the two-year study. The first is to establish baseline
data for surf quality and usable beach at surf spots throughout the county, with special focus on spots near RBSP II receiver beaches. The second is to daily observe surf quality parameters and surfer counts. The study also hopes to track changes in surf quality and surfability, assess changes in beach width and shoreline position and create a video archive. Trained volunteers will take measurements and create daily logs to measure parameters that can’t be recorded automatically, such as surfer count, Chunn-Heer said. The main parameters that will be measured by CoastalCOMS are break zone detection, which gives an indication of how the break zone changes over time, and breaking wave heights. In each detected break zone the system detects breaking waves over a specified period of time. Metrics reported include the break zone period and maximum, minimum and average wave
height. The monitoring study will also provide one portal to tie together information from other sources such as buoys and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Chunn-Heer said the goal is to install the cameras by the end of January to get as much baseline data as possible before the sand replenishment begins. Surfrider will compile and analyze all data collected and provide it to SANDAG. Data from the cameras can also be used to establish information about the coast as it pertains to other projects and climate change, Chunn-Heer said. “I think it’s a great idea,” Mayor Joe Kellejian said. “It’s wonderful for the future. “This would have been nice to have one or two years prior to this to be able to judge what’s really happening with our coastline but we haven’t,” he said. “We can’t look back and so let’s move ahead.”
Plastic surgery offered to underprivileged young victims OCEANSIDE — Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, a Carlsbadbased nonprofit, is holding a screening clinic from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 28 at the Oceanside Public Library Community Room, 330 N. Coast Highway 101. The organization provides reconstructive plastic and dental surgery free of charge to children and youth under the age of 18 who suffer from a physical deformity due to birth defect, disease, accident or abuse. Medical staff and Fresh Start representatives who
speak English and Spanish will be on hand at the clinic to meet with families who think their child may be in need of its services. “Every child deserves a chance to have a positive selfimage. Since our beginning in 1991,we’ve changed the lives of over 5,000 children,” said Michelle Pius, director of Major Gifts at Fresh Start. “We want to help correct childhood deformities and disfigurement. To help accomplish this as a home-grown San Diego charity, Fresh Start wants to ensure
that our community members are aware of the resources that are available to help.” Families planning to attend the clinic should bring medical records and income information along with them and should be prepared to spend approximately two hours at the screening clinic. Other organizations like WIC, CalFresh and Medi-Cal will also be on-site to provide information to families in need. “This is a great opportunity for families to sign up for the WIC program, CalFresh and
more,” said John Lundblad, a representative from the city of Oceanside. “We want to educate our community members about the resources that are available during these difficult economic times. There are so many resources that the state of California provides. It’s our job to make sure San Diegans know they are out there.” For more information about Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, please visit freshstart.org or call (760) 944-7774. Fresh Start is an organization that provides reconstruc-
tive dental and plastic surgery for kids free of charge. Every six or seven weeks throughout the year Fresh Start Surgical Gifts holds a Surgery Weekend and 80 to 100 talented individuals provide reconstructive plastic surgery and reconstructive dental surgery for infants, children and young adults with physical deformities free of charge. Surgery Weekends are held at the Fresh Start Clinic at Rady Children’s Hospital. All medical and support personnel volunteer their time, talents and expertise.