NEW ORLEANS — A rape defendant was found competent to stand trial Tuesday after a WWL-TV report raised questions about his treatment for mental illness as a child.
Following a psychological evaluation, Navarri Henderson, 22, was declared competent by Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Laurie White.
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Dr. Rafael Salcedo testified Tuesday that Henderson exhibited no sign of mental illness, describing him as cooperative and fully capable of understanding the case against him.
Salcedo said Henderson was candid about his dysfunctional upbringing, including a stay in a mental health facility for about a month after he expressed suicidal thoughts when he was 12.
But neither Salcedo nor Henderson’s defense attorneys could locate treatment records from that period indicating any specific diagnosis or impairment.
Police say DNA evidence linked Henderson to violent rapes of two different women in Algiers, evidence that has his mother wondering if her son’s troubled history played a role in his case.
Henderson’s father is serving a 40-year prison sentence for attacking and raping strangers. His mother admitted being a habitual drug user when Henderson was young.
A DNA sample was taken from Henderson after he allegedly beat his pregnant girlfriend so badly that she had to be hospitalized. Police took his DNA in the domestic violence case, having no idea it would link him to the Algiers rapes.
The victim in the first rape, in 2016, said she was jogging along the Mississippi River levee in Algiers Point when a man grabbed her, punched her and raped her. The woman told WWL-TV she suffered permanent vision loss as a result of the attack.
In the second case, a woman who was seven months pregnant was beaten and raped after she was dropped off at an Algiers apartment.
Henderson faces two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and several other charges.
He is scheduled to be back in court March 5 for pre-trial motions.
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