Brenda Wing to Be Re-Tried in Vader Toddler’s Death

The case against Brenda Wing, the woman previously sentenced in the death of Vader toddler Jasper Henderling-Warner, will be going to trial more than three years after she plead guilty and was sentenced in the 4 year old’s death.

A convoluted and lengthy series of legal wranglings led to that point, where Wednesday morning in Lewis County Superior Court, Brenda Wing opted to withdraw her guilty pleas on all of the charges leveled against her — an option given to her by the Washington State Court of Appeals following an error in sentencing on one of those charges.

In doing so, she essentially reset the trial process. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to iron out timing of the trial.

“It’s been an enormously complex case. … Probably one of the most complex I’ve seen in terms of the legal wrangling,” said Brenda Wing’s legal counsel Shane O’Rourke.

Brenda Wing’s husband, Danny Wing, who also pled guilty in the death of Henderling-Warner, opted against withdrawing his guilty pleas last month to his own charges of first-degree manslaughter and third-degree assault. He will be resentenced on the assault charge during a hearing starting 9:30 a.m. Nov. 7.

Both Wings pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree manslaughter and third-degree assault of a child in 2015. They were found to have violated the terms of their plea bargains after failing polygraph tests, and were subsequently each handed 34-year sentences — a steep increase from the 12 years negotiated in their plea bargains.

Each defendant appealed their sentence, and the higher court agreed with the harsh penalty on the manslaughter charge. However it also ruled that the prosecutor’s office incorrectly tallied both Wings’ offender scores — a number that determines statutory sentencing ranges — for the assault charge. They were given the option to either be resentenced on that charge alone or to withdraw their guilty pleas — an action which would cause the entire case to be retried.

“Mr. Wing has a history of trying to hedge his bets … he wants a certain guarantee before he decides whether or not he’s going to take a certain course of action and I think what the court told him is, you can file whatever motions you want but you still need make that (choice) whether you’re going to withdraw your guilty plea or not, and he opted not to withdraw his guilty plea,” said Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer in a previous interview, immediately following Danny Wing’s decision not to withdraw his plea.

That decision alone took a couple years to come along, as the case was batted around at the appellate level.

O’Rourke said, after the hearing Wednesday, that the appellate process is a lengthy one in general, and the case against Danny Wing was longer than average. He said his client was interested to see how her husband’s case would pan out before making a decision of her own. O’Rourke said during the hearing Wednesday that their argument would focus on Brenda Wing’s level of involvement in the death of Henderling-Warner.

“Our position in the case is … we’re going to be exploring what her specific involvement was in this, as opposed to lumping them all together and saying well they’re all just in it together,” O’Rourke told the Chronicle.

It wasn’t an easy decision for Wing, O’Rourke said in court, or one that was made flippantly. It came down to accepting the 34-year sentence and remaining in custody until she was in her 50s, or retry the entire case and risk an even longer sentence if convicted.

He added later: “People will say, ‘Yeah the legal system just churns slowly sometimes’ — and this is a good example of that.”

Henderling-Warner’s 2014 death was the result of prolonged abuse, The Chronicle reported at the time, citing the Lewis County Coroner’s Office. The Vader toddler had a septic MRSA infection and evidence of healing fractures, burns and bruises. He had been under the care of the Wings in the months leading up to his death.