Joshua Pendleton

A new court hearing has been scheduled to reevaluate the competency of the man accused of killing Rev. Al Henderson.

Joshua Pendleton, 36, was ordered in January to undergo a psychiatric competency evaluation and appropriate treatment after District Court Judge Gina Badding found probable cause that he would be unable to stand trial for first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. In February, initial evaluations by psychiatrists supported that finding, committing him to treatment to restore him to competency.

Over four months after that order, a psychiatrist at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (Oakdale) in Coralville told the court he has been restored to competency. The court will rule on the matter at a hearing on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Defense attorney Michelle Wolf said on Jan. 11 that she had substantial difficulty preparing with Pendleton for his upcoming trial, which was then scheduled to start in April. She filed the motion for the mental competency hearing in December. The defendant has a long, documented history of severe schizophrenia since his diagnosis at 21, according to Wolf and his mother, Heidi Pendleton.

The attorney described difficulties in getting the defendant to understand the importance of being dressed for their meetings to prepare for trial. Her communications with jail staff indicated that he was smearing feces all over his padded cell, as well as eating it.

Pendleton was charged after Fort Dodge Police say he killed Henderson, 64, in an Oct. 2 confrontation outside of St. Paul Lutheran Church.

Court records reflect Pendleton’s extensive history with charges in the criminal justice system. He has been charged numerous times over the last several years with attacking jailers and assaulting others, many times in conjunction with court-ordered treatment.

After the February hearing, Heidi Pendleton said that her son was a different person when he was on medication, but she couldn’t remember the last time her son was consistently medicated.

“If he’s on his meds, he’ll be competent,” she told The Messenger after the hearing, hoping for a restoration to competency to give closure to the Henderson family and community devastated by the sudden death of the beloved police and firefighter chaplain.

If the court confirms his competency Tuesday, criminal proceedings against him will resume. Per order of the Iowa Supreme Court, criminal jury trials cannot be scheduled until at least September. The precautionary moratorium, a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was extended earlier this month from its original July expiration.