Bigamist husband on trial in murders of pregnant wife, 4 family members

An Alabama man on trial for capital murder this week allegedly worked with his first wife to kill his pregnant second wife and four members of her family, prosecutors said.

Christopher Henderson, 46, appeared in Madison County court Monday to hear testimony against him from his first wife Rhonda Carlson, whom he was still legally married to when he wed his second wife Kristen Smallwood Henderson, news station WAAY reported.

Carlson, who took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, claimed that Christopher orchestrated the killings of Henderson and her family in August 2015.

She said that she and Christopher had reconnected the summer of the murders, but they were working on getting a divorce, WAAY reported.

Carlson claimed when she brought a gas can over on the night of the killings, she didn’t think anyone there was alive in the residence.

She testified that Christopher then poured the gasoline and lit the home on fire.

Authorities later determined the family was shot and stabbed before the home was set ablaze.

Kristen Smallwood Henderson was nine months pregnant with Henderson’s child at the time of the murders, authorities said.

Her 8-year-old son, Clayton Chambers, her mother, Jean Smallwood, and her 1-year-old nephew, Eli Sokolowski, were also killed, authorities said.

Christopher’s lawyers argued in opening statements that Carlson was responsible for the murders.

If convicted of the killings, he faces the death penalty, CBS42 reported.

With Post wires