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Trial Over Newlywed’s Fatal Fall Could Explore Racial Slurs, Marital Tension | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

August 16, 2023

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COURTESY ST. LOUIS POLICE Bradley Jenkins, blood still on his shirt, was found straddling his wife’s body, police say.

More than four years ago, an Illinois man was charged with pushing his new wife off a parking garage in the shadow of Busch Stadium — an incident that ended with the woman plummeting to her death.

Now attorneys for Bradley Jenkins are seeking to have video evidence taken by his wife in the moments prior to her death be ruled inadmissible if the case goes to trial. Defense attorneys are also apparently seeking to limit testimony from people with the couple that day, who say that prior to Allissa Martin’s death, Jenkins called her a racial slur.

Both Jenkins, now, 35, and Martin, who was 27, worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections. The pair had just gotten married in Las Vegas two weeks prior to her death in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 2, 2019.

The couple had been with other coworkers at the Cardinals-Cubs game downtown that Saturday. Around 2 a.m. Sunday, police responded to a call for a woman who’d fallen from the garage on Walnut Street between 8th and 9th streets. Officers said they arrived to find Martin’s body on the street and Jenkins on top of her, intoxicated and covered in blood.

Police found Martin’s cell phone on the seventh floor of the parking garage. The phone’s camera was still running.

“The recording showed her pointing the camera toward herself. She then turned the camera toward this defendant and he was shown on camera. They were arguing. Shortly after that, you hear her scream as she falls,” says the probable cause statement against Jenkins.

Last December, Jenkins’ attorneys John Rogers and Joseph Whitener filed a series of motions in limine, a type of court filing which asks the judge to prevent certain pieces of evidence from being introduced at trial. Those filings are sealed and not available to the public.

However, earlier this month, prosecutors filed their responses to those motions, revealing some of the potential evidence that could be introduced in court if the case goes to trial. Those responses are publicly available in the court docket, and provide a sense of the prosecution case against Jenkins.

At least one witness whose testimony the state hopes the jury will hear — and who Jenkins’ attorneys are trying to prevent from testifying — is an unnamed witness who was with Jenkins and Martin on the day of the incident and heard Jenkins call Martin, who is Black, a racial slur. Another witness apparently said in depositions that Jenkins called Martin racial slurs “all the time,” though prosecutors indicated they will not introduce that evidence in court.

Prosecutors hope to introduce testimony about the racial slur allegedly used by Jenkins near the time of Martin’s death — even if they refrain from having witnesses recount the actual slur in court.

“To the extent the Court is concerned that the actual racial slur used by [Jenkins], (the “n-word”), may inflame the jury, the State should be allowed to elicit testimony that witnesses heard Defendant call the Victim ‘a racial slur,” prosecutors wrote.

Jenkins’ attorney Rogers tells the RFT, “My client is not charged with anything with respect to the death of his wife. The charges in this case are not homicide charges. The parameters of the evidence are being discussed in court. I am not going to comment in addition to what I’ve just said to you now until the conclusion of this trial, respecting the effects pretrial publicity can have on potential jurors.”

Another witness who was with Jenkins and Martin has said that Jenkins was so angry with Martin on the day of her death he was “visibly shaking” and “[un]able to calm down,” prosecutors wrote.

The two witnesses with Jenkins and Martin that day claimed that Jenkins was “disrespectful” and “hostile” to Martin in the hours leading up to her death, that he was intoxicated and that she tried to take his keys from him.

Court filings from prosecutors also reference Jenkins’ defense team trying to have the judge block the jury from hearing Martin say “don’t punch me in the face” and “get off my face” on the video recorded on her phone in the moments before she died.

According to the prosecution’s filings, the defense has argued that those utterances made by Martin are “inadmissible hearsay.” The defense also asked the judge to declare as hearsay text messages from Martin to Jenkins “accusing him of being a bad husband or boyfriend.”

How much of this evidence will be admissible is up to St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Noble, in whose courtroom the case is being tried. Judge Noble has not said when he will rule in the matter.

In the more than four years since Martin’s death, the case has had a rather circuitous path through the justice system.

Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner filed charges not long after the incident, and Jenkins was soon out on bond. But then, in September 2019, Gardner’s office dismissed the case, saying that they needed more evidence and writing, “Once we receive the necessary evidence, we intend to refile the charges.”

The charges were refiled more than two and half years later, in April 2022. Jenkins has been free on bond since not long after the charges were refiled against him last year.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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