Charges dropped against man accused of shooting at three women

May 17—URBANA — Attempted-murder charges filed against a Champaign man last year have been dismissed due to what a state prosecutor said was a lack of cooperation from witnesses.

Dwayne J. Henderson, 34, was charged with three counts of attempted murder and one count of being an armed habitual criminal in August 2023, but all four charges were dropped this week before Champaign County Judge Matt Lee.

Three women were fighting outside Henderson's then-residence in the 1500 block of Hunter Street in Urbana on Aug. 22 of that year, Assistant State's Attorney Chris McCallum said.

The prosecutor's case alleged that Henderson was also present and that he went into his house, came out with a gun and fired at the women, hitting all three. However, the three women all had very minor injuries, including a foot and a hip scraped by a bullet.

One of the women had been in a relationship with Henderson and did not cooperate with investigators, McCallum said. The other two women also did not show up for several meetings with the State's Attorney's Office or return phone calls, McCallum said.

As a result, McCallum said the state could not proceed with its case. Police never located a firearm tied to the shooting, but they did find 10 individual 9 mm shell casings in the area.

Henderson was charged with attempted murder while he was already in prison for a parole violation in a separate case.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2020 after he pleaded guilty to possessing between 15 grams and 100 grams of heroin in July 2019. After the attempted-murder case was dismissed, Henderson was remanded to prison to finish that sentence.

Henderson faced six to 30 years in prison if he had been convicted of attempt-murder, a Class X felony.