Today, just a little more than two weeks after his arrest, Keyon Caldwell pled guilty to one charge of voluntary manslaughter while armed in the shooting death of Draynell Paul Henderson.
Caldwell, 32, waived both a grand jury inquiry into the case and a trial by jury. At his initial court appearance he tried to speak several times.
“I’m not denying anything,” he said then.
According to charging documents in the case, just prior to the shooting, Henderson entered Caldwell’s 24th St. Northeast apartment and told Caldwell “I got something good for us.” The two men then left the apartment together. About 15 minutes later a witness, who was in the apartment’s bedroom, heard gunshots. The witness locked the bedroom door and yelled for help. A minute later the witness opened the door, went into the living room, and saw Caldwell lying on the floor clutching a handgun. Henderson was lying just outside the front door, gasping for breath.
When police officers arrived on the scene, both men were still lying on the floor. One of the first officers to arrive on the scene believed that Caldwell was under the influence of PCP. Henderson was pronounced dead later that evening.
Caldwell was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder.
Judge Thomas Motley ordered a pre-sentence investigation into the case.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 26.
