Cass County man officially charged with murdering his sister

CASS COUNTY, Mich. -- On Tuesday afternoon Edward Hensley was transported from Elkhart County to Cass County, Michigan where he was officially charged with one count of open murder.

Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz said, "It's called open murder and that’s a statute in Michigan that the legislature allows a prosecutor to charge that offense and give us the flexibility to determine as we proceed closer to trial whether we will be pursuing 1st degree murder, 2nd degree murder or manslaughter."

Fitz told the judge after Edward Hensley stabbed his sister Martha Sexton 11 times in the throat, back of the neck and face, "he then left her there to die and simply fled to the Elkhart area still in possession of the murder weapon."
 
Fitz said Hensley stabbed Sexton after the two had been drinking last Friday afternoon and an argument over the case of beer that belonged to Sexton turned physical.

 The two lived at a house their older sibling Mary and her husband rented near Edwardsburg, off of US 12.

Mary was in court on Friday to see her brother, via video from the Cass County Jail, get arraigned for the murder of her sister.

She told ABC 57 that both Sexton and Hensley were mentally unstable all their lives and she felt the responsibility to look after them.
 
Mary became very emotional in the courtroom after the prosecutor mentioned the fact that Hensley stabbed Sexton 11 times.
 
The prosecutor said Hensley was found in Elkhart on Friday evening.

It is not clear how he got there, however Victor Fitz said he had a head injury and was found face down in a puddle behind a liquor store.

He was transported to Elkhart General Hospital's ER.

Elkhart Police took Hensley into custody around 8:50 Friday evening.

Hensley's next court appearance is on July 11.