FORT WORTH -- A man watching a capital murder trial Thursday suddenly tried to vault the courtroom's wooden divider in the direction of the defendant, but he was tackled by five court officers.
It took several minutes to subdue Antwane Henderson, 29, of Fort Worth.The jury was escorted out of the courtroom about a minute after the melee began.Later, state District Judge Scott Wisch sentenced Henderson to 180 days in Tarrant County Jail for contempt of court. While passing sentence, Wisch said Henderson's actions could cause a mistrial in the case of Rashad Glenn, 20, who is charged in the fatal shootings of two men in 2010.About 3:45 p.m., Henderson stood up and hurdled the divider but was tackled in midair by Paul Brinkley, a Tarrant County sheriff's deputy assigned to the court, according to court records.Three other deputies -- Steve Farrow, Richard Clossner and Kyle Schugart -- and Danny Nutt, an investigator with the Tarrant County district attorney's office, jumped in to help subdue Henderson.When jurors were brought back into the courtroom, Wisch told them that they needed to disregard the incident if they could, but if they could not, they should communicate that to him. As of Thursday evening, no juror indicated that they could not render a fair verdict in Glenn's case, according to court records.Glenn is accused of shooting Charles E. Govan and Richard L. Hawkins on Aug. 21, 2010. Witnesses told police that Govan, 21, and Hawkins, 20, were in a vehicle stopped in the 4400 block of Emerson Street when a car pulled up and a passenger got out and started shooting at them. Govan died at the scene. Hawkins died shortly afterward at a Fort Worth hospital.This report includes material from Star-Telegram archives.Mitch Mitchell, 817-390-7752Twitter: @stcrime