Competency test requested for teen murder suspect
Student charged in fatal shooting pleads not guilty.
A 17-yearold BUTLER COUNTY — Ross High School student charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a fellow student last month will remain incarcerated until his next court appearance.
The teen, who is charged with aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence in addition to murder for allegedly fatally shooting Austin Hensley on the evening of Jan. 30 at a residence on Hine Road, was scheduled to appear Monday in juvenile court before Judge Kathleen Romans.
Attorney Richard Hyde entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client and asked that he be evaluated for competency to stand trial, saying the teen has a form of autism. The prosecution objected to the evaluation, stating the teen had been evaluated by the court for past cases and found competent.
The prosecution is requesting the case be sent to adult court for trial if probable cause is found by the judge. Romans set March 5 for that hearing.
“Based on the law, if they find probable cause he will be bound over,” Hyde said after the hearing. “He knows it’s serious.”
Hyde sat at the defense table alone on Monday. He waived the teen’s appearance in court after a local media outlet indicated the teen would be photographed, but his face blurred so that he was not recognizable. Defendants in juvenile court do not often have their faces shown by the media unless their case goes to adult court.
Officials say Hensley’s death was the result of a robbery gone bad. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Butler County Coroner’s Office.
“(The shooting suspect) lured (the victim) to the house, they were gonna trade guns, supposedly,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said. “In the process, the (shooting suspect) had all intentions of robbing (the victim) that he lured into the house through social media.
Court documents also say the accused shooter attempted to wipe down the gun and hid it after the incident.
A 911 call was received by dispatchers about 6:30 p.m. from a home in the 900 block of Hine Road from a woman who said she came home from grocery shopping and found the teen dead on the couch. The woman said her son came running to her, saying she needed to call for an ambulance.
A second Ross High School student and 17-year-old, who faces a felony charge of grand theft of a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting, appeared before Butler County Common Pleas Judge Ronald Craft earlier on Monday for a pretrial hearing. According to court documents, the teen removed his father’s .38-caliber handgun from his father’s bedroom and passed it to another subject, who is not named in the documents.
Craft set another hearing for Feb. 26 and ordered the teen to remain in the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center.