A Bessemer man has been sentenced to life in prison for a 2018 shooting in Jefferson County that killed one man and wounded another.

Jason Kevin Henderson, 41, was convicted in March of murder and attempted murder following a two-day trial.

Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff Circuit Judge David Carpenter on Tuesday sentenced Henderson to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Henderson is still awaiting trial on sex abuse of a child under the age of 12, which is alleged to have taken place while he was out on bond and on electronic monitoring for the deadly shooting.

According to authorities, the alleged sex abuse of the female child happened in July 2020. The charges against Henderson in that case involve inappropriate touching but no other details were released.

The shooting happened about 2:20 p.m. Sept. 10, 2018, on Doss Drive off Shannon-Wenonah Road.

Jack Blanks, 62, was killed. Another man was wounded.

At a previous hearing in the murder case, a sheriff’s detective said he was called to the scene on Doss Drive in Shannon on a shooting. When he arrived, deputies had detained Henderson and a woman for questioning, one man was being treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital, and another man was dead in the yard.

Henderson lived at the location where the shooting happened. Police interviewed the woman, the surviving victim, Henderson, and Henderson’s cousin.

The woman told officers that Henderson owed her $20 and a magazine for a gun that had been sold to her boyfriend. She had the surviving victim and Blanks, neither of who were her boyfriend, drive her to Henderson’s house.

When she got there, she went inside the house and spoke to both Henderson and his female cousin.

Henderson said he had already given the magazine to one of her family members, and he was waiting on his boss to get the $20.

The woman walked out of the house, and he followed, grabbing his puppy from the yard, and walking back inside. The woman said Henderson told the three to leave before he walked back in the house.

As the woman and two men were getting in the car, investigators said, Henderson came out of the house with an assault rifle and shot Blanks twice, then shot the surviving victim.

The woman claimed that Henderson then pointed the rifle at her, saying “Don’t make me do this.”

The surviving victim told investigators a similar story.

He said the trio went to Henderson’s house and he stayed in the car while Blanks and the woman got out. The surviving victim said he heard Blanks yelling, “If you owe her money, just pay her.”

The surviving victim told police he then saw Henderson come outside with a rifle, so he jumped out of the car. He saw Henderson shoot Blanks twice, and then he was shot five times—twice in each leg and once in the stomach. As a result of his injuries, the surviving victim had to have one of his legs amputated.

Henderson, when interviewed by police, said he knew the woman and surviving victim because he sometimes did work for them, but he didn’t know Blanks.

Henderson said the woman came inside and asked for money, but Henderson said no and walked her out. When they were all outside, Henderson said the two men attacked him. Henderson said the fight continued inside the house, and he managed to get his rifle and go back out and shoot the two other men.

Henderson also said that when he went outside to get his puppy – because he was afraid someone may steal it- the two men said, “We like young white girls,” and he was afraid for his cousin and her daughter.

Henderson’s attorneys had asked that he be sentenced to community corrections, saying the deadly shooting was unlike him and not likely to happen again.

“Jason was in fear for his life on the day in question and has never waivered from this position and doesn’t now,’’ attorney Leslie Schiffman Moore wrote. “However, that in no way diminishes the loss of life and/or limb that occurred on the day in question.”

Henderson remains in the Jefferson County Jail.