BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A former business associate of a Washington state man who was killed in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme is slated to appear in a North Dakota federal court this week for a detention hearing on a weapons charge.
James Henrikson, 34, was arrested Saturday in Mandan on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and first appeared in court Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Miller ordered Henrikson to complete a financial affidavit so court officials can determine whether he qualifies for a public defender.
He’s due back in court Friday at 11 a.m.
Neil Fulton, head of the federal public defender’s office for the Dakotas, said his office does not comment on pending cases but added that “Mr. Henrikson is presumed innocent.” A defendant must be deemed “indigent” to qualify for a federal public defender, but there are no specific income guidelines, he said.
Court documents show Henrikson had business dealings in the North Dakota oil patch with Doug Carlile, who was shot by an intruder Dec. 15 at his home in an upscale Spokane neighborhood. Authorities said Henrikson was an investor in Kingdom Dynamics that had mineral rights to 640 acres of land on northwestern North Dakota’s Fort Berthold Reservation, home to the Three Affiliated Tribes. Carlile owned 51 percent of Kingdom Dynamics. Henrikson told Spokane police that Carlile owed him nearly $1.9 million and that he was angry with Carlile, but Henrikson denied being involved in Carlile’s death, court documents show.
The Three Affiliated Tribes Business Council on Wednesday issued a statement saying the tribe has not been involved with Henrikson. Spokane authorities say in court documents that Henrikson is under investigation for allegedly defrauding a company owned by Tribal Chairman Tex Hall. Hall has declined to comment on the matter through his spokeswoman, Glenda Embry. Embry’s and Hall’s cellphones weren’t accepting new voicemail on Wednesday.
Timothy Suckow, 50, of Spokane, has been charged with first-degree murder in Carlile’s death. Henrikson has not been charged in the death.
On Jan. 14, agents with state and federal agencies including Homeland Security went to Henrikson’s residence in Watford City in northwestern North Dakota to execute a search warrant “for various items related to suspected financial crime, as well as firearms and ammunition,” Daniel Mehlhoff, an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in an affidavit. Agents found more than half a dozen guns in a gun safe in the home, he said.
Henrikson is barred from possessing guns because of felony convictions in Washington state for manufacturing marijuana, eluding authorities, burglary, theft and assault, Mehlhoff said.
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