A mother charged with stabbing her 16 year old son to death appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday for the purpose of entered a plea to charges of second-degree murder, but the plea was not accepted by the court when 45-year-old Rebecca Lynn Henley broke down in tears and said she would never admit to knowingly killing her son.
A very emotional Henley said she does not believe she committed the act. Circuit Judge John Putman said he would not accept her plea at this point. “I don’t want to retire from the bench knowing I sent people to prison for crimes they did not commit.” The judge said for Henley to reappear on March 6.
Henley became very distraught when Judge Putman asked her how old her son would be now. She replied 18 through sobs.
Mountain Home Police were called to a residence along Walker Street around 10:30 p.m. March 20 last year for a reported stabbing. The victim was taken to Baxter Health where he died a short time later. Another male juvenile had been in the residence but was not injured.
In the probable cause affidavit, it is reported the 911 call came from Henley who told the dispatcher she “just woke up and stabbed her son.” In a post Miranda interview with Henley she is alleged to have said she had to kill her son for “righteousness, to save everybody.”
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