'UNH QUARTERBACK CHARGED WITH MURDER

As the University of New Hampshire football team made its way to Harrisonburg, Va., Friday for the first game of its football season, back-up quarterback Hank Hendricks was en route to his native San Diego, where he’s facing a murder charge.

Hendricks, 21, was indicted on Thursday in the beating death of a professional surfer, Emery Kauanui Jr., on May 24 in La Jolla, Calif. Four other suspects were previously charged in his death and have pled not guilty.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Hendricks, who will be in court on Monday to answer charges of murder, assault and battery, was immediately suspended from the football team, school officials said Friday. He had been practicing with the team, which is ranked fifth nationally heading into its game against No. 10 James Madison, all week.

Calls to the cell phones of UNH coach Sean McDonnell and the school’s sports information director, Scott Stapin, were not immediately returned Friday.

According to a report published earlier this week in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Hendricks admitted to police he was with the four other defendants at a bar on the night of May 23. He said he had left the bar to take a phone call and go to a nearby store when a fight broke out between one of the other suspects – 20-year-old Eric House — and Kauanui.

Hendricks, a San Diego native, told police he and the others left the bar and drove to Kauanui's home in La Jolla, where another fight broke out. Kauanui was eventually transported to a hospital, where he died a few days later.

According to the Union-Tribune, Hendricks gave a statement to police on May 29, where he said he saw defendant Seth Cravens, 21, hit Kauanui in the jaw, causing his head to fall back and strike something.

If convicted of murder, the five suspects will face jail terms of 25 years to life.

Police are alleging that Hendricks and the four other suspects are members of an affiliated group of men known as the “Bird Rock Bandits,” which is suspected in other assaults in the area in recent months. All five were also charged with assault and battery in this incident.

...After taking some courses at a local community college in the fall of 2004, Hendricks arrived at UNH with a scholarship in January of 2005. '