The murder of Patrick
Dennehy occurred on June 12, 2003, when Dennehy, a 21-year-old basketball
player at Baylor University, was
shot by teammate Carlton Dotson.
Patrick Dennehy
Patrick James Dennehy
(January 28, 1982 – June 12, 2003) was an American
college basketball player born in Santa
Clara, California. Dennehy transferred to Baylor University from the University
of New Mexico following his sophomore season in 2001–2002. In the summer of
2003, after redshirting the 2002–2003 season, he was preparing to play for the Baylor Bears in the upcoming 2003–2004
season. Carlton Dotson, a junior power forward on the Baylor basketball team who was a friend of Dennehy's, was charged
with his murder, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Dotson was also a transfer student, and had played
two seasons at a junior college in Paris,
Texas, before transferring to Baylor
in the summer of 2002.
Carlton Dotson
Carlton Eric Dotson,
Jr. (born June 1, 1982) is an American
former college basketball player currently serving a 35-year prison term for
the murder of Patrick Dennehy.
Dotson is an inmate of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice and, as of January 2020, is incarcerated in
the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas. Dotson attended North Dorchester High School in Hurlock, Maryland and Paris
Junior College before transferring to Baylor
in the summer of 2002, where he played one season as a forward.
Murder
In the summer of 2003, reports surfaced that Dennehy and
Dotson were concerned about their safety. They had purchased two pistols and a
rifle and practiced firing them at a farm north of Waco. Dennehy's friend Daniel
Okopnyi said he spoke on the phone with Dennehy on June 14, and Dennehy
said that he was worried about threats made to Dotson by two teammates. Dennehy
also indicated that he and Dotson would be at a party the following day, at
which neither appeared. Over the next
few days, there were indications that something had gone wrong: Dennehy's
mother and stepfather, Valorie and Brian
Brabazon, were concerned that they had received no calls on Father's Day, and Dennehy's roommate, Chris Turk, returned from an
out-of-town trip to find that Dennehy's dogs had not been fed in days. The last
time that Dennehy had been seen was June 12. On June 19, the Brabazons filed a report with the Waco Police Department that Dennehy was missing. On June 25,
Dennehy's Chevrolet Tahoe was found
in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Virginia
Beach, Virginia, with its license plates removed, allegedly by Dotson.
An affidavit filed on June 23, which was unsealed on June
30, seeking a search warrant for Dennehy's computer says that an informant in Delaware told police that Dotson, who
by now was at home in Hurlock, Maryland,
told a cousin that he had shot and killed Dennehy during an argument while
firing guns in the Waco area. On
July 21, Dotson was charged with the murder of Patrick Dennehy and taken into custody in Maryland. The search for Dennehy continued until July 25, when a
badly decomposed body was found in a gravel pit near Waco and was taken to Dallas
for an autopsy. While Dotson said he felt compelled to speak with the FBI, it is unknown whether his report
led police to Dennehy's body. The following day, medical examiners identified
the body as Dennehy's. On July 30, his death was ruled a homicide after a
preliminary autopsy report showed that Dennehy died of gunshot wounds to the
head. Upon discovery of Dennehy's remains, the head and body were discovered in
separate locations. Whereas sensationalized news reports indicated Dennehy was
decapitated, investigators believe this occurrence is most likely the result of
scavenging desert animals. On August 7, a memorial service was held for Dennehy
in San Jose, California.
Court case
On October 28, 2004, Dotson was declared incompetent to
stand trial by District Judge George
Allen and was sent to a state mental hospital to be reevaluated in four
months' time. Three psychiatrists, including one appointed by the court, said
that Dotson appeared to be suffering from hallucinations and psychosis, but
that he could regain competency to stand trial in the future. Among other
issues, Dotson believed people were trying to kill him because he was Jesus. It is believed that his ex-wife also noticed
he was hearing voices. In February 2005,
Dotson was returned to jail after psychologists deemed him competent to stand
trial but that he must continue taking his anti-psychotic medication. The
psychologist also said that Dotson's accounts of hallucinations and hearing voices
were "suspect."
On June 8, 2005, five days before his trial for murder was
to begin, Dotson unexpectedly pleaded guilty to killing Patrick Dennehy. On June 15, Dotson was sentenced to 35 years in
prison. He will be eligible for parole after he has served about half of his
sentence, in 2021. In December 2005,
Dotson wrote a letter seeking permission to appeal his case; in January 2006, a
judge ruled that Dotson had forfeited his right to appeal when he pleaded
guilty.
University reactions
The day Dennehy's body was identified, the current standing
president at the time, Robert B. Sloan
Jr., made a speech to the public where he described the discovery as having
the community's "worst fears being
realized" and that it was a heart-wrenching loss. He along with many
other representatives from Baylor
attended Dennehy's funeral. Baylor
University also held a campus-wide memorial for Dennehy on August 28, 2003,
in the Paul W. Powell Chapel. There was a charity event held by Bill Cosby on September 4, 2003, at the
Floyd Casey Stadium where he
mentioned Dennehy when discussing people that had been lost throughout the
year.
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