Photo: Vanessa Henschel
At various times, a Briarcliff woman has attacked people with her fists, a knife, a backpack and now a tool used to clip tree limbs.
Twenty-seven-year-old Vanessa Henschel made a first appearance in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday on her newest criminal charges. The court entered a plea of not guilty for Henschel since, as in the past, she sat mute during her court appearance.
In her latest case, Henschel is charged with aggravated residential burglary, theft of property, aggravated assault and third-degree battery.
Henschel’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mark Cooper, said he had gone to the Baxter County jail last Tuesday to meet with his client but “she was not responsive at that time.”
Circuit Judge Gordon Webb told Henschel it would be in “her best interest” to take part in the process. He said if she chose to sit mute, the court had experience in dealing with her silences. “We have been through this ridiculousness before,” Judge Webb told Henschel.
A retired Circuit Court Judge, Kathleen Bell of Helena, sitting in for Judge Webb during a court session in October last year, was able to get Henschel to speak to the point she could indicate if she accepted or rejected a plea agreement being offered by the state. The charges in her current case stemmed from a report of a burglary at a residence along County Road 15 in late January.
The homeowner said he had arrived at his residence to see his truck going up his driveway. He said he saw a female, later identified as Henschel, exit the truck and go inside the garage. He told investigators he went inside the garage and made contact with Henschel.
After some conversation, Henschel is reported to have punched the homeowner in the head and then armed herself with a pair of “limb clippers” and attempted to attack him.
The homeowner went to a neighbor’s house to call 911.
The first Baxter County Sheriff’s Office investigator on the scene recognized Henschel from previous encounters. He asked Henschel what she was doing on the property. As opposed to her court appearances, she did speak to the investigator, telling him she lived there.
The investigator asked her where she had gone in the homeowner’s truck and she said she had been to “town and back.”
The homeowner and the investigator walked through the residence. They saw the window over the kitchen sink had been broken and blood was found on the sink and floor.
It appeared Henschel had helped herself to snacks and a soft drink and rested in one of the bedrooms. They also found dresser drawers had been pulled open, and $60 in cash was missing from a closet. The homeowner’s wife said items of her clothing and jewelry were also missing.
It was determined Henschel had been wearing some of the missing clothing and jewelry at the time she was arrested.
Henschel was arrested and charged in early February 2016 with stabbing a former friend at a local motel. In the stabbing case Henschel was charged with first-degree battery.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the case, the victim’s boyfriend let Henschel into the motel room based on the past relationship between the Briarcliff woman and his girlfriend.
He then went outside to retrieve articles from a vehicle when he heard screaming and ran back to the room. He told investigators he found Henschel astride his girlfriend stabbing her. The boyfriend struck Henschel knocking her off the victim.
The victim, who received non-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 starting stabbing her, saying, “I’m sorry” during the attack.
Henschel underwent a psychological evaluation during the course of the stabbing case and was found fit to proceed. She spent 530 days in the Baxter County jail prior to being sentenced in the stabbing case.
Henschel has also been in trouble for attacking her 62-year-old father. In mid-July last year, a Baxter County Sheriff’s deputy responded to an address along Bonnie Lassie Drive in Briarcliff 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 in mid-afternoon, he found his daughter gone and his flat screen television set damaged.
Henschel was located at an address along North Highland and taken into custody.
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