Charges against a juvenile murder suspect in Lubbock were dropped Thursday according to an official with the 364th State District Court.
The suspect was never publicly named because she was a juvenile at the time of the incident.
Alize Henderson, 17, died after a stabbing in the 2600 block of East Auburn Street.
“Justice is not being done,” Henderson’s father, Ivan Williams said.
Williams said the prosecutors felt like a self-defense argument would work if the case went to trial.
Williams was told the other girl did try to leave the scene before she and Henderson had an altercation. He also said he wanted to hear more from prosecutors before making any further comments.
At the time of her death in September of 2015, Henderson’s mother said she had a 4.28 grade point average at the Talkington School for Young Women Leaders. Henderson also earned a spot in the National Honor Society.
She would have graduated from Talkington this year.
Attorney Jeff Nicholson represented the girl accused of murder. He released the following statement Thursday evening:
My statement regarding the dismissal of the charges against my Juvenile client:
Obviously, this has been a terrible ordeal for both my client and her family as well as the family of Alize Henderson. Our thoughts go out to them. The District Attorney’s office as well as our defense team worked diligently in going through the facts and evidence in this matter; which took a lengthy amount of time. Some of this is attributable to the severity of the situation and some due to the fact that it involved a juvenile charged with the offense of Murder. I can assure you that everyone involved spent an inordinate amount of time on this case and that the decisions made reflect this effort.
Our interpretation of the evidence was that the onset of this matter stemmed from an ongoing situation where-in my client was bullied: verbally, physically and on social media. The unsettling aspect of the matter is that there was no real relationship between Ms. Henderson and my client prior to these events. My client had been attacked by an acquaintance of Ms. Henderson in the hours prior to this incident while my client sat in her vehicle at a 7-11. Ms. Henderson was with that person at that time but did not seem to be involved. I believe that following that incident Ms. Henderson’s acquaintances were directly involved in fueling her decision to pursue my client and – thus – are very much responsible for what took place later on.
After the matter at the 7-11 diffused; my client and her friends left and eventually went to my client’s home. Ms. Henderson continued to pursue my client through Facebook messenger. My client was attacked by Ms. Henderson who jumped from a moving car and ran at my client who was in her own yard. My client defended herself.
This situation is tragic in that two families had to go through this ordeal based on – in my opinion – bullying, peer pressure and the realities of social media. We would like to believe that these type things do not occur in Lubbock; but this case proves they do – and we peed to create an awareness that will get it stopped. This entire set of circumstances was senseless.
