September 23, 2014

Henrikson charged with murder-for-hire

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

The state of Washington on Wednesday, Sept. 17, filed two federal murder-for-hire charges, as well as four counts of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, four counts of solicitation to commit murder for hire and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin against James Henrikson, 35, of Watford City.
Henrikson, a five-time convicted felon, is accused of murdering his former business partner, Doug Carlile, in December of 2013 in the state of Spokane, Wash., and for arranging the murder of Kristopher Clark, one of his employees in North Dakota. Clark has been missing since 2012. In addition, Henrikson is being charged with conspiring to murder Jay Wright, Jed McClure and Tim Scott.
Henrickson has been held in the Burleigh County Detention Center in North Dakota on a firearms charge following his arrest in Mandan on  Jan. 18, after the FBI raided and seized multiple pistols, shotguns and a rifle from his Watford City home.
According to earlier reports, though Henrikson did not physically kill Carlile, he contracted Timothy Suckow, 51, of Spokane, to do the dirty work for $20,000, according to a confidential informant from Spokane, who knew both Henrikson and Suckow.
Evidence suggests Suckow may have been hired to kill Carlile, with unpaid debts being the motivation for the contract killing. Hours after Carlile was murdered, Henrikson was questioned by authorities over the phone. He denied killing Carlile, but did mention that Carlile owed him nearly $2 million.
According to the Spokane Police Department reports, Carlile and Henrikson were introduced over two years ago, at which time they and two other men, John Wark and Bill Curtiss, all invested in two businesses in the oil fields of North Dakota.
One business, Bridgewater Energy, is a trucking company to haul water and oil from well sites. The other business is Kingdom Dynamics Enterprise, which is an oilfield development company.
Carlile  recruited investors for Kingdom Dynamics in order to purchase mineral rights on 640 acres on the MHA Nations Reservation. Henrikson and his wife, Sarah Creveling, each invested a few hundred thousand dollars. Part of the deal was that Henrikson would receive $1.2 million after the oil field began producing in exchange for his original investment.
Suckow was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on Jan. 14, for shooting Carlile to death in his Spokane home. Suckow was linked to the shooting through DNA samples on a glove left at the scene of the murder.
For months, investigators searched for the missing proof to link Henrikson to the murder until a confidential informant, who worked for Henrikson, came forward.
According to the informant, Henrikson and Suckow exchanged numerous e-mails regarding the murder, pictures of Carlile and his home, and Henrikson supposedly wrote to Suckow that he wanted Carlile dead, “not just sucking through a straw.”
If found guilty of one of the two federal charges, Henrikson could face the death penalty or life in prison.
Henrikson will be transported to Washington to stand trial on the federal charges by U.S. marshals.

WATFORD CITY WEATHER