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Jacksonville woman's fears of her violent, mentally ill son end with her slaying; injunction foretold her possible fate

Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) - 10/30/2014

Oct. 30--An oft-institutionalized man repeatedly deemed mentally ill by authorities and feared by his mother for 10 years of abuse is now charged with suffocating the Jacksonville woman in her Regency-area apartment Wednesday.

Henry Sean Harriford, 28, is charged in the death of Janette Harriford, 59, who was found dead in her Woodcreek apartment in the 400 block of Monument Road, police said Thursday.

Janette Harriford's co-workers went to her apartment because they were concerned about her well-being. They found Harriford's son in front of the apartment and he told them his mother was inside.

The co-workers found her body in her bedroom and the son fled but returned. Police were called about 1 p.m. and Henry Harriford was detained.

Assistant Chief Chris Butler of the Sheriff's Office said the victim was suffocated during a visit from her son, who was there seeking money. He said the unemployed suspect was a transient.

Butler said Janette Harriford had a 2010 injunction for protection against her son for domestic violence and also had him frequently trespassed from her property. He was arrested repeatedly for ignoring those warnings, including seven times this year, and for abusing his mother, records show.

Harriford's mother said in the injunction that he was a diagnosed schizophrenic who refused to take his medication. She said he had been abusing her emotionally and his father physically since 2004 and once tried to set his own tongue on fire.

"I am in fear of [her son] due to him not taking his medication," she wrote. "He loses control and I just don't know what [her son] will do to me when I refuse to give him what he wants."

Though she requested a provision that her son not have contact with her, Harriford's mother later had that rescinded from the injunction, which was obtained Thursday by the Times-Union.

Many of Harriford's arrests were dropped due to his being deemed incompetent, records show. The son also has been institutionalized under the state's Baker Act for mental illness 17 times, Butler said.

Details of several of the arrests were obtained by the Times-Union. They included:

-- In January, Harriford was charged with domestic battery after a dispute at his mother's apartment. Police found him at a nearby store and noted that he appeared mentally ill and became incoherent after claiming and then denying and then claiming again that he was a Marine. Harriford was ordered to take a mental-health examination and the charges were dropped.

-- In March 2013, police arrested Harriford on charges of battery and trespassing after a bizarre incident in the parking lot of police headquarters.

The arrest report said Harriford repeatedly yelled an obscenity about police officers and was told by an officer to leave. He walked away, came back and left again. A few minutes later, he walked back into the parking lot, ran behind an unsuspecting man and began punching him in the back of the head.

Police arrested Harriford on the spot. The victim said he didn't know Harriford.

That case also was dropped in lieu of a mental-health examination.

Jim Schoettler: (904) 359-4385

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