Man Accused of Murder Injures Self to Avoid Court

An Oceanside man accused of murdering his wife last January was scheduled to be in court yesterday, but he “rammed his head into a sharp metal object on a wall” to get a medical deferral from coming to court, according to sources.

The same morning, Thursday August 4, a Superior Courthouse judge phoned the jailhouse doctor to inquire of the defendant who was not produced as scheduled, and was told that Dontaye Willington Henderson had “some sort of superficial wound,” according to a person close to the case.

Judge Daniel Goldstein was told that the accused man was “cleared from medical isolation” and so he ordered Henderson brought to the Vista courthouse the same afternoon.

“After that, Henderson rammed his head into a sharp metal object on a wall so that he could not be medically cleared,” the source stated.

The family of the woman who was allegedly murdered by Henderson, 25-year-old Tamara Henderson, had traveled from Louisiana to see the hearing scheduled for Thursday, according to the prosecutor. “The family is anxious to have their day in court,” said Deputy District Attorney Keith Watanabe, who is expected to reveal details of the case during this hearing.

Judge Goldstein has rescheduled a preliminary hearing for Dontaye Henderson, 29, at 8:50 a.m. Monday morning, August 8.