A judge granted the release of Linda Henning after 27 years in prison while she awaits a new trial in the 1999 killing of Girly Chew.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A judge granted the release of Linda Henning after 27 years in prison while she awaits a new trial in the 1999 killing of Girly Chew.
Judge Cindy Leos ruled Friday that Henning can be released pending trial.
Henning was convicted of conspiring with her then-boyfriend, Diazian Hossencofft, to kill his ex-wife, Chew. Earlier this week, a judge granted Henning a new trial. Prosecutors subsequently sought to keep her in custody while the case moves forward.
“I am going to deny the motion to hold Miss Henning pre-trial,” Judge Cindy Leos said.
“With respect to her conditions, release, your Honor, respectfully, may I request an ankle monitor?” asked a prosecutor. Judge Leos said, “No, I’m not. I don’t ever order ankle monitors. I don’t think it really does anything.”
Mark Horner, a former KOB 4 reporter who covered Henning’s trial and later wrote a book about the case, said Friday’s ruling surprised him.
“I think it’s hard for anybody not to be a bit shocked, if not very shocked,” Mark Horner said.
Leos said prosecutors failed to show Henning currently poses a danger to the public, “I don’t think there’s been any showing that she would, she has this one really horrendous incident that took place almost 30 years ago.”
Horner said he can’t help but feel, with nearly 30 years in between, there’s some sort of gap. “This passage of time it kind of thins out the intimate knowledge, the energy, the awareness of what everybody, even jurors, had to wrestle with, and jurors still live with this. I know they; these weren’t easy decisions for them.”
Prosecutors pointed to 17 reports that they argued showed a pattern of concerning behavior. Leos said many of the reported incidents were minor. Horner said one report mentioned, caught his attention.
“Most of them didn’t rise to anything, you know. Very they’re just small, small things like trying to feed a bird or save a bird, and it reminded me of Steve Zachary,” Horner said.
He alleges Steve Zachary dated Henning years before the incident.
“He said that she liked to even save spiders. She wouldn’t hurt anybody. That’s who Linda Henning is. And then I’m hearing all this this focus on she tried to feed a bird, or she tried to save an injured bird. It took me back to Steve Zachary, and Steve Zachary later said that after having met Hazenkoff, she changed,” Mark Horner said. “She went from normalcy to lunacy. So there’s something there, and I’ve read a lot of Henning letters. Some of them written to me, like the one that said I wouldn’t be alive to finish my book. And I’ve seen what she said about other people’s illnesses and deaths. And like I say, I wonder how much of that Linda remains, because apparently she’s no longer a concern to the safety of society.”
Leos imposed several conditions on Henning’s release. She is prohibited from violating the law, consuming alcohol, using illegal drugs, or contacting victims or witnesses.
Henning is expected to undergo a competency evaluation before the case proceeds.
