The 2007 disappearance of 22-year-old Brooklyn visitor Stepha Henry from a Broward County nightclub has at long last been fully clarified by the jury’s conviction of Kendrick Lincoln Williams for her homicide. Although Williams, charged with 2nd Degree Murder in December 2007, denied having killed Ms. Henry, the DNA blood evidence found in the car he originally purchased in Brooklyn and later denied ever owning or driving, played an important role in the prosecution of this case. This was particularly true, since Stepha Henry’s body has never been recovered. The Broward County jury decided otherwise after thoughtfully evaluating all the accumulated evidence presented in court by Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Abbe Rifkin.

I applaud excellent work of Assistant State Attorney Abbe Rifkin, a Senior Trial Counsel with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, who handled this dual jurisdictional case in Broward County’s 17th Judicial Circuit. Abbe’s skill and experience, in what might have been seen as a difficult homicide prosecution, allowed the jury to quickly reach a verdict.

I hope this verdict has finally given the family of Stepha Henry some sense of justice after a long and painful wait. I know that nothing, even this verdict, can ever replace the senseless loss of a young daughter whose life was so full of promise.