Man Accused of Killing Woman During Sex…Thought She Fell Asleep

ST. PAUL – According to a criminal complaint, a St. Paul man has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder after allegedly killing a woman while they were having rough sex. 

24-year-old Sammy Devel Henderson reportedly admitted to police that he had visited Sherell Montrese Craighead, 30, the night of August 31 and they drank and engaged in rough sex, during which he had his left arm around her neck.  However, Henderson denied knowing that Craighead was dead when he left, claiming that he thought she had gone to sleep. “I knew that she was limp, but I didn’t know she was dead. I know I left her … open, exposed, but not ‘out,'” he told police, according to the complaint.

The complaint also states that during the assault, Craighead asked her 7-year-old son to call 911 but the boy couldn’t find a phone, so he went to sleep. In the morning, he went to his grandmother’s house who then brought him back to the apartment where the boy told police his mother was bleeding and sleeping naked on the floor. According the complaint, the boy said his mother’s friend, Sammy, was visiting her the night before.

Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office says Craighead’s death was ruled a homicide from asphyxia due to manual strangulation and that a bone in her neck also was broken.