PLEA BARGAIN
DENTON - Family members peeked through the courtroom doors as Paul Allen Henson, Jr.'s fate was decided.
"We had significant evidence," said Jamie Beck, prosecutor for Denton County. "He was facing a capital murder indictment, which if he were found guilty of that charge it would have been a life sentence without parole."
Henson, now 17, agreed to a lesser charge. Tuesday morning, he agreed to be certified as an adult. Hours later, Henson took a plea bargain of 60 years in prison for his role in the stabbing death of his former girlfriend's mother.
"He was almost 17 at the time," Beck said. "The crime was extremely brutal, extremely violent [and] resulted in the death of one of the defendant's moms."
WFAA-TV
Prosecutors said Henson, along with his 17-year-old girlfriend Jennifer Bailey and her 14-year-old brother, killed the Baileys' mother, Susan. She was stabbed to death before the three tried to flee to Canada. It happened last September in the Bailey home in Roanoke.
Now, eight months later, Beck said the motive remains a mystery, though Jennifer's mother reportedly disapproved of her daughter dating Henson.
The former boyfriend is now the first to face justice in the brutal crime that rocked Roanoke.
