NORTHAMPTON — An hour before sunrise Wednesday, police say, a Florence man forced his way into his ex-girlfriend’s bedroom, woke her and professed his love.
But when she told him they were finished, according to police, he became enraged and wrapped one hand around her neck and placed the other over her mouth.
He told her not to scream, police said, and that he was going to kill her.
When the alleged intruder, Robert Hendrick Jr., 25, loosened his grip on the woman, she went into the bathroom and screamed for her mother, who was asleep downstairs, a police report shows.
The woman’s mother, who was wielding a stick to defend herself, yelled for her daughter to come into her bedroom, police said. Hendrick followed.
He then grabbed the mother’s wrists and pried her phone out from her hands, according to the report, and threw the phone out of reach. That’s when he fled, police said.
Officers found Hendrick roughly two hours later in the area of Maple and Main streets. Later Wednesday afternoon, Hendrick pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court to attempted murder, two counts of strangulation, assault and battery in violation of an abuse prevention order, witness intimidation, armed burglary and assault and battery on a person older than 60.
He was ordered held without bail.
Police determined that Hendrick allegedly gained entry to the Corticelli Street home by climbing a fire escape out back and entered the residence through an unlocked door.
The woman who was attacked in her bedroom told investigators that she had an active restraining order against Hendrick and that this wasn’t the first time he’d tried to strangle her, police said. She also reported there was currently a warrant for his arrest out of New York.
Hendrick is due back in court on Friday for a dangerousness hearing in which a judge will decide whether he poses a threat to himself or others and if bail can be set.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.