Dad pleads guilty in crash that killed 5 kids (Houston, Texas)

Dad CHANTON JENKINS has pleaded guilty to 5 charges of intoxication manslaughter in the deaths of his 5 children. He was high on booze, PCP, and marijuana at the time of the fatal car crash.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6987245.html

Houston father pleads guilty in crash that killed 5 kids
By BRIAN ROGERS Houston Chronicle
May 3, 2010, 11:40AM

A Houston father pleaded guilty this morning as he was set to go on trial for the deaths of five children who drowned last year when he drove into a flooded bayou while drunk.

Chanton Jenkins pleaded guilty to five counts of intoxication manslaughter for the April 18, 2009, crash in north Houston. He faces a maximum of five life sentences.

State District Judge Mary Lou Keel ordered a presentencing investigation before deciding punishment July 29.

Jenkins' attorney, Lott Brooks, said his client saw no point in going forward with a trial.

"My children are dead," Brooks quoted Jenkins as saying. "What else can they do to me?"

Prosecutors alleged that Jenkins' blood alcohol level was 0.079 some 2½ hours after the crash. He also tested positive for PCP and marijuana. PCP, or phencyclidine, can cause hallucinations and disorientation.

Brooks had expected Jenkins to testify that he was not affected by alcohol or drugs. Brooks said Jenkins used the drugs weeks before and did not cause the wreck in the 2600 block of Greens.

“The evidence will show that it was an event where he loses control because of the weather and his attention being divided, having dropped his cell phone,” Brooks said last week.

Brooks said Jenkins, an unmarried father of seven, was talking to his girlfriend as he drove through the downpour to pick her up at work. Authorities estimated that the 2000 Lincoln LS was submerged in nine feet of water in Greens Bayou.

To get a “not guilty” verdict, jurors would have had to agree that causes other than the intoxication would have been sufficient to cause the wreck without the intoxication, Assistant Harris County District Attorney Alison Baimbridge said.

She also said the evidence showed that Jenkins was over the legal blood-alcohol limit for operating a motor vehicle, which is .08, as well as being physically and mentally impaired at the time of the wreck.

None of the five children was wearing a seat belt or was strapped into a car seat. They were identified as Dreton Thompson, 11, Malik Barlow, 7, Devin Jenkins, 4, Hallie Jenkins, 4, and Karrinton Jenkins, 1.

Chanton Jenkins was the father of three of the victims, as well as the only child to survive, Jada Barnes, 10. Jenkins' adult brother also survived.

Brooks said Jenkins tried to get the children out of the car after it was underwater.

“Mr. Jenkins kept diving in the water, but he couldn't find the car. The current was so strong, it kept sweeping him back,” Brooks said.

brian.rogers@chron.com