Suspect in Hermosa Slaying Again Ruled Unfit for Trial

A transient accused of stabbing a Hermosa Beach woman to death on The Strand in 1988 again has been found mentally unfit to stand trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Geltz said this week.

Three psychological experts have determined that Sharon Hendrix, 32, now housed at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, cannot fully understand the charges against her or assist with her defense. A judge ruled last year that she was not capable of assisting in her own defense but called for periodic reviews of Hendrix’s condition.

Geltz said prison officials will decide whether to keep her at Patton for three months before retesting her mental competency or beginning conservatorship proceedings that could keep her in a mental hospital for life.

Hendrix is charged with the March 29 murder of Gillian M. Cooper at the 40-year-old victim’s beachfront home. Cooper, the wife of a physician at Little Company of Mary Hospital, was standing in her patio one afternoon with her mother when Hendrix climbed over a three-foot wall. Cooper told the woman that she was trespassing and Hendrix responded by cursing, pulling out a knife with an eight-inch blade and stabbing Cooper once in the chest.

The murder startled the small beach community, which is seen by many residents as remote from problems of the rest of the county.

Police said Hendrix used several aliases, including Jody Foster, Omar Sharie and Sharon Bianci, and rambled incoherently after the stabbing. Hendrix said that she had been abused as a child and that she “had to” stab Cooper, police said.

Hendrix, who told investigators that she lived on the beach, had been arrested about half a dozen times since 1982 for crimes ranging from prostitution to assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.