Family Erupts In Fury After Man Who Shot Wife 5 Times, Spit on Her Body Then Claimed to be the Victim Gets Manslaughter Conviction from Kentucky Jury
The murder trial of a former U.S. Army servicemember accused of fatally shooting his wife at her birthday party ended with a manslaughter conviction, triggering an emotional outcry from the victim’s family members in court.
A Kentucky jury found 34-year-old Jordan Mykol Henning guilty of first-degree felony manslaughter for the shooting death of his wife, 32-year-old Ashley Henning.
Jordan shot his wife multiple times during her birthday party at the couple’s home on June 26, 2023, the News-Enterprise reported.
Witnesses told investigators that right before the shooting, they started leaving the party because the couple began to argue. Neighbors even removed the Hennings’ children from the home as the fight intensified.
Multiple surveillance cameras from inside the home caught the fatal encounter. One camera recorded Jordan appearing enraged when he grabbed his handgun, went behind a living room wall, and started shooting.
Footage also showed him reloading his firearm once between shots, then spitting on Ashley’s corpse when he was finished. Prosecutors say he shot Ashley five times.
Henning fled the home before authorities arrived, but they found him a mile away, making “numerous utterances apologizing for hurting his wife,” the arrest citation read. He was charged with murder-domestic violence, a Class A felony in Kentucky.
During the trial, defense attorneys said Jordan’s actions were the result of a mental breakdown triggered by years of physical and verbal abuse committed by Ashley. Prosecutors disputed the claim, as well as friends of Ashley who testified that Jordan was a paranoid prepper who had a hit list in the event of an apocalypse.
After the jury read off their verdict, Ashley’s cousin, U.S. Marine Chief Warrant Officer John Williams, directly addressed jury members, calling them “cowards.”
“And this is the justice that America gives me. Unspeakable. Unthinkable. It’s disgusting,” Williams said with tears in his eyes. “Every single one of you. Every single one of you is cowards.”
During the trial, Jordan Henning took the stand and made his case to jurors, alleging that he “wasn’t thinking at all” when he fired the fatal shots.
“I just broke, I don’t know, next thing I remember, I’m standing over top of her shooting, and I didn’t know how it got to that point. I watched myself on that video,” Henning said, referring to the surveillance footage played in court. “I don’t know who that was.”
Both Jordan and Ashley were active military servicemembers at the time of the shooting.
“How did he think reckless homicide would help his career?” defense attorney Rodney Rigney asked the jurors during closing arguments. “It wasn’t. If he was in his right mind and in control of the situation that night and not suffering from extreme emotional disturbance, why would he do this in front of the cameras he helped install? Think about that.”
Prosecutors argued that all the evidence proving Jordan committed the crime with purpose and intent is too strong to deny.
“If what you saw on that video is not evil and malicious, I don’t know what is,” Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Eric Carr said. “This is one of the most cold-blooded acts of violence possible.”
After four hours of deliberating, the jury returned their verdict, declaring Henning guilty of manslaughter and recommending a 20-year prison sentence. Had Henning been convicted of murder, he could have faced between 20 and 50 years or life in prison.
His sentencing date has not yet been set.
