MIAMI, Okla. — An Ottawa County Judge ruled there is enough evidence to try a Joplin man on charges he killed three people, including two children, in a car crash while he was allegedly under the influence of marijuana.
Anthony T. Hendricks, 25, is charged in Ottawa County with three counts of manslaughter. His bail is set at $45,000, court records show.
Hendricks appeared before Special Judge Becky Baird for a preliminary hearing today (3/4). After more than two hours of testimony from four witnesses, Baird ruled there was enough evidence to go to trial, and she set his arraignment for March 27.
Killed in the Sept. 17, 2021, fatal crash were Terry Wilkins, 29, Eden Melton, 7, and Raylan Brown, 5, all of Joplin. The crash occurred approximately three miles west of the Oklahoma and Missouri line on OK-10C.
The victims’ family members filled the first three rows of the courtroom.
Hendricks spoke twice to his attorney Jeremy Bennett during the two-hour preliminary hearing.
He told authorities a dark-colored Ford pickup truck sped around him and that he was chasing the truck to get the tag number. According to the arrest affidavit, Hendricks said that Ford pickup truck struck the front of his Honda, causing him to crash.
Four witnesses testified for the state including Shanna Jones, mother of Eden Melton. She and Hendricks were friends and they were all on their way to Oklahoma when the triple fatal crash occurred.
Jones, 28, testified she and another friend, Alexandria Brown, were in a pickup truck in front of Hendricks when he passed them on the Oklahoma road.
Hendricks’ vehicle left the roadway and overturned multiple times, ejecting Wilkins and Brown, according to an arrest affidavit.
Three Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers, Preston Konemann, Colt Duncan and Micah Stinnett, testified about the condition of Hendrick’s vehicle and Hendrick’s alleged drug usage.
“When I first got to the scene, I saw an orange car crumpled up in a ditch,” said Konemann.
All three officers testified through their experience they knew from training Hendrick was driving at a high rate of speed.
“The car was almost destroyed,” Konemann testified.
Hendricks told Duncan he was driving between 60 to 65 mph, but Duncan testified the “evidence showed the collision occurred at a high rate of speed and contributed to” the victims’ deaths.
Duncan testified there was no evidence to indicate any other vehicle was involved, particularly there was nothing suggesting a collision to the front driver or passenger side of Hendricks’ Honda.
Bennett argued at the close of the hearing there was no testimony of how much THC was in Henrick’s blood system. THC is the component in marijuana that reflects if a person is under the influence.
Oklahoma’s Driving Under the Influence statute says it is unlawful for a person who “has any amount of a Schedule I chemical or controlled substance, as defined in Section 2-204 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes, or one of its metabolites or analogs in the person’s blood, saliva, urine or any other bodily fluid at the time of a test of such person’s blood, saliva, urine or any other bodily fluid administered within two (2) hours after the arrest of such person; (Marijuana is a Schedule I drug).”
Henricks’ blood samples tested positive for Hydroxy-THC, THCA and THC, all marijuana components, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Hendricks said to Duncan he had “smoked a bowl” of marijuana on the morning of the accident.
Stinnett testified Hendricks consented to having his blood drawn.
Hendricks also confessed to Stinnett he had used marijuana earlier in the morning.
Stinnett also testified when cross-examined by Bennett, that Hendricks had been given pain medication before he arrived at the hospital.