Chesterfield County News
Police: Manchester student attempted to kill fellow student with knife
Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 6:15 pm
A Manchester High School student walked up behind a fellow student he knew in a music classroom Monday and repeatedly stabbed and slashed the victim in an attempt to kill him, a juvenile intake officer testified Tuesday at the defendant’s detention hearing.
Reading from a police report during the hearing in Chesterfield County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, Chesterfield Intake officer Ronald Burroughs told a judge that Chad Hensley, 17, approached fellow student Benjamin Millefolie, also 17, from behind and began stabbing him multiple times in front of a class full of students.
After Millefolie collapsed to the floor, Hensley “continued to stab and slash” the teen, Burroughs testified. There was no evidence or testimony about who may have intervened to stop the assault, but the school’s principal in a statement to students and parents said the situation was contained within five to six minutes.
Burroughs said Chesterfield police Detective Michael Morgott interviewed Hensley in the school’s office after he was taken into custody and the teen advised that he attempted to kill Millefollie. Burroughs didn’t address any further explanation Hensley may have provided to the detective for his actions.
At the end of the brief hearing, Substitute Judge John E. Dodson ordered that Hensley continue to be held in juvenile custody. Typically, only enough evidence to keep a defendant detained is presented at such hearings.
Hensley’s parents have retained attorney Cary Bowen to represent their son and, at Bowen’s request, the judge scheduled the teen’s next hearing on Oct. 27. Bowen plans to ask the court to have a psychologist evaluate Hensley to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.
After the hearing, Bowen said Hensley is an honor-roll student who knows the victim and his parents through church. Bowen added that his client has no known mental health issues and his family is baffled by the teen’s behavior.
Hensley stood straight and answered questions from the judge impassively during his appearance in court by video hookup from the Chesterfield Juvenile Detention Center, where he is being held.
Millefolie was attacked about 9:30 a.m. with what police described as a folding-style pocket knife. Investigators said the teen was stabbed multiple times but declined to elaborate on the number or nature of the wounds. He reportedly is recovering after undergoing surgery at VCU Medical Center.
On Monday, Chesterfield police Capt. Chris Hensley said that the police investigation “indicates that there was a certain level of planning by our suspect.”
In a statement to Manchester High School students and parents, Principal Pete Koste said his “heart hurts for both of the young men, their families and all of you who know them.”
“There are many questions for which we have no answer,” Koste wrote. “The first of which is why would someone attack a student who I believe is one of the nicest, kindest, most mannerly individuals I know. And what would possess an individual who was very strong academically and never a discipline problem at school to commit such an extreme action. The incident has left many of us confused, and understandably so.”
mbowes@timesdispatch.com
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