Teen Threatened to Kill Witness If He Snitched, Court Told in Beating Case

Updated at 5:25 p.m. May 10, 2012

A 19-year-old man told a young witness that he’d kill him if the juvenile reported the older man’s attack on a homeless man outside the Ramona library, a court heard Thursday.

Tanner Seth Hendee—who at 6-foot-4 towered over his female public defender—pleaded not guilty via video hookup to charges connected to the Monday night assault.

Sendee took a knife and other unspecified items from the unnamed victim, according to the prosecutor.

Hendee, with long brown curly hair, wore a jail-issued V-necked shirt during the 5-minute hearing before Judge Charles Ervin in El Cajon Superior Court.

Ervin raised Hendee’s bail to $150,000 from $30,000, and set his preliminary hearing for May 23 after a readiness conference May 17.

As many as eight juveniles witnessed the assault, according to Deputy District Attorney Hung Bach, who tried to get protective orders for each after beginning to list them by name.

Ervin stopped Bach after six names and asked him to submit all names later in a different request.

Hendee told one of the juvenile witnesses to a series of three separate attacks that he’d kill him if he reported the assault, Bach told Ervin.

Labeled a transient by authorities, Hendee has a juvenile court history, Bach said. A public defender is being appointed in his case.

If convicted of his current charges, Hendee faces eight years and eight months in prison, according to Tanya Sierra of the District Attorney's Office.

A MySpace page showing Hendee had the label THUG LIFE, indicating he had listened to songs including one by the 1990s punk rock band Choking Victim called Death Song. His Facebook page showed him cuddling a pit bull.

Paramedics responding to a 911 call found the victim lying on his back in the abandoned house in the vicinity of the 100 block of 11th Street just before 5:30 p.m. Monday, said a sheriff’s statement.

The victim was flown to a local trauma center suffering from head and possible spine injuries, but he did not appear to be in life-threatening condition, authorities said. No further information about the man's condition was available Thursday.

City News Service contributed to this report.