Area legal team defends man found not guilty in shooting

HOBBS -- Bishop Henderson was 19 when he was arrested for murder in Hobbs in 2019.

Now 22, he was pronounced not guilty Monday by a Lea County jury.

Henderson faced three murder charges in a case known as “The Hobbs Party Shooting.” Three people died and four were wounded in the shooting that occurred Aug. 25, 2019.

The trial lasted 19 days. The jury returned not-guilty verdicts on seven charges in about two hours.

Henderson was the party DJ at the event at his grandparents’ home.

Portales’ Sandra Gallagher and Clovis’ Mickie Patterson served as Henderson’s counsel. The rest of his defense team included investigators Kevin Clements and Jim Hardy.

Gallagher said Henderson and his girlfriend hosted the party.

“Nobody was drunk, it was like a TV show party, everybody having a good time,” Gallagher said. “Then shots erupted down the alley.”

Gallagher said the shooting victims were all young adults. A “stampede” followed, Gallagher said, and Henderson protected his girlfriend by throwing himself over her.

Henderson then went into his grandparent’s house, got a pistol and fired it into the air, Gallagher said.

Gallagher said Henderson fired the pistol in the air to stop the criminals from continuing to shoot into the party.

“He did it to protect people,” Gallagher said.

Once police were on the scene, Henderson was arrested and held without bond until his trial.

Hobbs police sent five guns to the state crime lab for testing, including Henderson’s, according to Gallagher. Henderson’s gun was not tied to the shooting victims, she said.

Prosecutors alleged Henderson had another gun that police never found, and that weapon could have been used in the shootings, the Hobbs News-Sun reported.

One piece of evidence, footage from a nearby home’s surveillance camera that allegedly shows the shooter, was anonymously submitted through the Hobbs chapter of the NAACP just this year, according to Galagher.

Gallagher said the motive for the shooting is unknown, and her client was the only one charged.

“Every one of us knew from the beginning Bishop was innocent,” Gallagher said.

Fifth Judicial District Attorney Dianna Luce did not return calls for comment.