A Briarcliff woman sat mute during an appearance in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday despite a warning she was not helping her cause by refusing to speak.Twenty-seven-year-old Vanessa Henschel also appeared without an attorney.
It was a repeat performance for Henschel. She stood mute during many of her court appearances in an earlier case in which she was accused of stabbing a former friend at a local motel in early February 2016. In the stabbing case, she even refused to speak with her defense attorney. She was eventually put on probation for 12 years.
She now faces the revocation of that suspended sentence based partly on new charges accusing her of allegedly attacking her 62-year-old father in mid-July. A revocation could send her to prison.
Henschel has entered a plea of not true to allegations contained in a revocation petition filed in mid-July.
Circuit Judge Gordon Webb told Henschel she was doing her cause no good by attempting to represent herself, especially if she persisted in her refusal to speak. The judge said Henschel, who was dressed in a Baxter County jail uniform, was “not taking steps to protect yourself. It would be to your benefit to have a lawyer represent you” during the revocation process.
Judge Webb asked Henschel if she wanted a lawyer from the Public Defender’s Office to represent her. While she did not break her silence, Henschel did nod her head indicating she agreed.
The revocation hearing was continued until Sept. 12.
According to a report on the latest incident resulting in charges being filed against Henschel, a Baxter County deputy sheriff responded to an address along Bonnie Lassie Drive July 16 to meet with Henschel’s father. The father reported earlier in the day his daughter had punched him numerous times on the side of the head and hit him in the face with her backpack. The father said he left the residence to get away from her.
When he returned home after several hours, the father found his daughter gone and his flat screen television damaged.
Henschel was located at an address along North Highland and taken into custody. She is being held in the Baxter County Detention Center.
In the earlier case, stemming from the motel stabbing incident, Henschel was charged with first-degree battery.
She was arrested Feb. 2, 2016 after entering a room at the Town and Country Motel and stabbing a then 23-year-old female. According to the probable cause affidavit in the case, the victim’s boyfriend let Henschel into the room based on the past relationship between the Briarcliff woman and his girlfriend.
He told investigators he then went outside to retrieve articles from a vehicle when he heard screaming and ran back to the room. He said he found Henschel astride his girlfriend stabbing her. The man struck Henschel knocking her off the victim.
The victim, who received non-life-threatening injuries, was stabbed in the neck and torso. She told police there was no conversation between her and Henschel prior to the attack. She said she was in bed and Henschel jumped on top of her and started stabbing her, saying, “I’m sorry.”
Henschel underwent a psychological evaluation during the stabbing case and was found fit to proceed. She spent 530 days in the county jail prior to entering a no contest plea in late September last year and was put on probation.
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