Harrisburg woman who fatally ran over boyfriend previously threw knife at his face: police

Harrisburg police say 38-year-old Dolly Hendrickes got mad after an argument and killed her boyfriend by running him down with a car as he walked on a concrete median on Cameron Street.

It wasn’t the first time Hendrickes has been accused of domestic assault against the victim, Andres Claudio, 67.

Four years ago, she was convicted of throwing a knife at his face, cutting his nose and hand, according to court records.

And he wasn’t the only person she attacked over the years, according to her record of criminal convictions.

In August, she was found guilty of a summary violation of harassment for kicking a her landlord’s female relative down a set of porch stairs in Harrisburg. The woman suffered minor injuries.

In 2009, she pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault for attacking an ambulance driver as he sat in his rig outside Harrisburg hospital. She had been treated at the hospital for a PCP-related issue, prosecutors said, and approached the ambulance upon release.

The driver rolled down his window to see if Hendrickes needed help when she started hitting him, police said. Hendrickes then attacked a nurse and security guard who came to the driver’s aid, according to police. The injuries were minor but the cases were prosecuted as felonies because the victims were first responders.

Earlier that year, she was found guilty of misdemeanor domestic battery in Florida for attacking her sister, according to Hillsborough County court officials.

Those convictions were among at least 17 convictions, including six felonies, in Hendrickes’ record over the past decade.

For most of her crimes, Hendrickes was sentenced to probation and referrals to mental health services, although she served a total of about 14 months behind bars. Court records filed in March said she has “significant mental health disabilities,” and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, compulsive personality disorder, sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes.

She was being treated at Teamcare Behavior Health for her mental illnesses, according to a court document filed in March to relieve her from having to pay court fines and costs from some of her prior convictions. The document noted Hendrickes hadn’t been employed since 2014, has five children (ages 13 to 1) and her sole source of income was social security disability benefits, which represented $846 a month plus $343 per month in food stamps.

The judge granted the motion to suspend her obligation to make payments for more than $5,500 in fines and costs as long as her sole source of income is Social Security.

While Hendrickes may have previously qualified for mental health intervention instead of serving long stints behind bars, the seriousness of her new charge: criminal homicide, means she likely won’t be eligible for any such diversion going forward if she’s convicted.

Dauphin County recently launched a new program, called Stepping Up, to try to quickly identify people with serious mental illnesses in the criminal justice system to prevent them from languishing in prison.

It is common for a small percentage of people with mental health issues to have repeated contacts with law enforcement, especially if they lack family support and are facing other issues such as homelessness or substance abuse, said Ashley Yinger, who serves as a mental health liaison to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s office.

In her new role, Yinger seeks to get people accused of non-violent offenses into mental health or substance use treatment instead of simply incarcerating them, which carries a steep price tag and can encourage recidivism. But someone facing serious, violent charges would likely need to receive treatment while locked up if they are a threat to the community, she said. In that scenario, Yinger said, the county would work to ensure the inmate is flagged for services behind bars.

“Our goal is to divert people who need treatment out of the criminal justice system,” she said. “But we can’t do it for everyone.”

Hendrickes had not come to Yinger’s attention during Yinger’s time in Dauphin County. Her mental health treatment history and compliance with treatment is not known, beyond the few mentions in court records.

Hendrickes’ criminal record in Dauphin County began in 2006 when she was 24 years old with three misdemeanor convictions— two counts of misdemeanor retail theft and one count of felony forgery— from two separate incidents.

She served two years’ probation without incident but then picked up the Florida battery case, which netted her probation in mid-2009. By the end of the year, she had attacked the ambulance driver and two others at the hospital, picking up three felony charges.

For those felonies, a Dauphin County judge sentenced her in 2010 to five years’ of probation, which would have given authorities a long window of supervision to ensure Hendrickes continued mental health treatment.

Two years later, while still on probation, Hendrickes tried to cash a fake check from a home hospice agency for $825 in a bank drive-through in Swatara Township, according to court records. A bank clerk quickly determined the check was bogus, in part because the bank’s name was printed in all small letters and the routing and account numbers didn’t match that bank.

An officer confronted Hendrickes in a van with another man while still in the drive-through lane. Although Hendrickes had signed the check with her name, when the officer asked who signed the check, Hendrickes told him, “John Doe,” according to court records.

Hendrickes served about two weeks in jail for violating her probation, and was eventually sentenced to two years of probation for forgery and conspiracy. Her court file noted that she was accepted into the county’s “mental health program.”

In 2014, Hendrickes pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of “false alarm,” after she called 911 and reported two medical emergencies that were not true against a 55-year-old man and his 78-year-old mother on New Year’s Eve. Hendrickes, also was charged with misdemeanor harassment of the 55-year-old man by continuously calling and texting at “extremely inconvenient hours,” according to court records.

In 2015, Hendrickes pleaded guilty to simple assault and tampering with evidence after she and Claudio got into an argument in the 1400 block of Zarker Street and she began throwing things outside of the house. Claudio told police he ran outside to avoid being hit and stood in the middle of the street. That’s when he said Hendrickes threw a large, curved kitchen knife at him, cutting his nose and finger, according to court records. She then hid the knife in a pile of trash around the corner from the house, but police recovered it and noted there was blood on the handle and blade, the records said.

Police originally charged her with aggravated assault, a felony, in connection with the March 22, 2015 incident. But that charge was reduced to simple assault, a misdemeanor, because Claudio did not want jail time, prosecutors said, and because of Hendrickes’ mental health and drug issues.

Dauphin County Judge Scott Evans sentenced Hendrickes’ to three months and 29 days in prison, which she had already served while awaiting trial. She served additional time in prison for violating her probation and was released Oct. 20, 2015.

She was supposed to "maintain contact with mental health services and follow all recommended treatment protocols,” while serving two more years’ of probation, according to court records.

Her record stayed clear until this year, when she kicked her landlord’s relative off a porch in the 500 block of South 17th Street amid a landlord-tenant dispute.

Less than two months later, she was charged with criminal homicide.

Prosecutors say she wheeled her car around during rush hour Oct. 10 after Andres Claudio, 67, exited the car during a domestic dispute to get away from her. He was walking away on a concrete median on Cameron Street near Arsenal Boulevard at the Farm Show Complex when Hendrickes drove up on the curb and struck Claudio, killing him, according to prosecutors.

Investigators have video of the attack, prosecutors said, recorded by a camera in a semi-tractor trailer that was at the scene during the rush-hour incident. Police also interviewed other motorists at the intersection.

Claudio’s death marked the city’s 11th homicide of the year, and the first committed this year with a weapon other than a gun.

Hendrickes remains in the Dauphin County prison without bond. Her next court date is set for Oct. 28. A defense attorney has not yet been listed for Hendrickes, according to her docket sheet.

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