Cold Case Suspect Dies After Emerging From Freezer

Some headlines just write themselves.  Carlton Henderson, 54, died this week after jumping out of a freezer and threatened employees with a knife while screaming “Away from me,Satan!”  After he was tackled and the knife taken away, Henderson went into cardiac arrest and died.  It was later discovered that he was the suspect in the 1988 shooting deaths of 26-year-old William Medina and 22-year-old Antonio Dos Reis.

Just last Wednesday, Judge Janet Sanders ordered Henderson released after his 1993 incriminating statements were found to be inadmissible because he was assured that the statements would not be used against him.  He was seeking to give up the information in exchange for a reduction a 15-year prison sentence for gun and drug crimes.

The bizarre scene unfolded at Sarabeth’s Restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue at West 80th Street. My family and I have eaten at the restaurant which is a popular spot for breakfast.

The cold case was described as an execution style slaying where Medina was shot in the head and Reis in the chest in Boston.  Some $20,000 in cash in a brown paper bag in the car and Henderson implicated two brothers in the double murder.  One of the men died in 1993 while the other is drug kingpin Leslie Rogers, who Henderson said ordered the hit.