Nikko Jenkins told everyone he understood.
He understood he was giving up his right to a trial.He understood he was admitting to the murder of four people.He understood what happened in court could land him on death row.
Just when everyone
thought, "okay, this should wrap things up," Jenkins started
back-tracking, bobbing, weaving, and (I say this without fear of libeling or
slandering the man) talking crazy.
By the end of this day in
court Nikko Jenkins talked his way into, at the very least, a lifetime in
prison without parole and the prospect of being executed by the State of
Nebraska.
He entered the court room
of Judge Peter Bataillon demanding to enter a guilty plea to four counts of
murder, being in possession guns and using them to commit the crime. Two hours
later, stretching the patience of judge and prosecutor, Jenkins changed his
mind again, pleading no contest to every count. It gave the judge the authority
to pronounce him guilty on all counts.
 |
| Nikko Jenkins (Douglas Co Corrections) |
Jenkins did it his way.
The people who could have helped, the defense attorney "advisors"
from the public defenders office, stayed close but stayed silent. The confessed
killer wanted to serve as his own attorney. He wanted to explain the murders.
And what an explanation.
The judge asked him if he
killed his first two victims. "My physical person may have been there but
I was not in that spiritual moment." Jenkins claims he was moved to
kill when he "heard the voice of the underworld god. That's who
assassinated these individuals." It all has something to do with the
"War of Revelations."
Growing more agitated as
he spoke of each of the murders, Jenkins told the court he recalls seeing the
victims before they were murdered but doesn't remember firing the shots or
seeing their bodies. At times during his explanation he slipped into speaking
in tongues or some sort of unidentifiable language. (Todd Cooper of the
World-Herald earlier wrote it was the language of Jenkins personal "serpent
god" Opophis. I have no reason to doubt that.)
The confession Jenkins
gave to police after his arrest did not place as much of the blame on Lucifer
and Opophis, according to Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine.
If there is any temptation
to smirk at the absurd and surreal courtroom antics, its necessary to remind
oneself why Jenkins was here. Jenkins killed four people within ten days.
The first two
execution-style murders made the news barely two weeks after the Nebraska
Department of Corrections released Jenkins from prison. Juan Uribe-Pena and
Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz were shot in the head while sitting in a pick-up truck in
South Omaha. A week later a man who became friends with Jenkins in jail,
22-year old Curtis Bradford, was found outside a garage in a residential
neighborhood on the north side. Two days later on the city’s west side Andrea
Kruger, a waitress heading home after her shift, was shot to death and her SUV
stolen. It took a few days for Omaha police to make sense out of three
seemingly unrelated homicides and pull together the evidence tying them all
back to the recent parolee, Nikko Jenkins.
Always methodical
prosecutor Kleine laid out the details of each murder in court today. It was a
30-minute summary of what would have been presented over two or three weeks had
the case gone to trial. The autopsies. The ballistics tests. The witnesses. The
confessions. (Jenkins apparently killed Ms. Kruger to steal her SUV because he
wanted a nice car to drive to an upcoming Lil' Wayne concert.)
Jenkins interrupted Kleine
a couple of times to have him repeat descriptions of the victim’s wounds. That
was too much for the family of Curtis Bradford, who fled the courtroom in
tears.
To accept Jenkins guilty
plea Judge Bataillon needed the accused to say he accepted as fact statements
made by the county attorney. Jenkins wouldn't do it.
"Everything he said is completely false," said the man who
started the day telling the court he was guilty.
Clearly frustrated, the
Judge changed course and asked Jenkins if he would be willing to submit a
no-contest plea instead of admitting his guilt. Yes he would, but....
Jenkins launched into a
rehash of claims about being treated unfairly, violations of his constitutional
rights, and accusations against police involved in the murder investigation. As
he spoke the five sheriff deputies providing security moved in closer to the
fidgety defendant.
The judge had enough. He
cut Jenkins off in mid-sentence telling him if he had complaints he wanted to
share with the world to contact the media and "do it on your own
time."
A few minutes later,
Jenkins was found guilty of four counts of murder.
Jenkins had one more
choice to make. Should a judge or a jury decide if he deserved to be
executed? The U.S. Supreme Court says
anyone facing a death sentence gets a hearing to weigh factors favoring the
death penalty (like the cruelty of the crime) against factors favoring mercy
(like not having a prior criminal record). Jenkins chose to leave it up to the
judges.
 |
| County Attorney Kleine leaves court (Photo: Kelly) |
Judge Bataillon all but
begged Jenkins to turn over his case to the public defenders office for this
stage of the proceedings and stop trying to represent himself in court. It was
clear throughout the day Jenkins had no grasp of the most basic legal
procedures.
Jenkins continues to
insist he can go it alone. At a hearing in March Judge Bataillon warned him
it’s a job that “would be very difficult for any lawyer.” Jenkins didn’t
flinch. “I understand all those risks.” While mental heath experts had serious
doubts about the man’s grasp on reality, Jenkins insisted he was
“intellectually able” to represent himself. Back in court a couple weeks later
the scope of his intellectual abilities was on full display as he swore at the
judge, mocked the prosecutors, laughed manically when asked if he was
competent, and howled at the bank of cameras in the hallway when being lead
back to jail.
It's likely that Jenkins'
mental health will come up for discussion again. He stated repeatedly in court
that he's schizophrenic and two doctors came to the same conclusion. Three
other psychiatrists doubt that diagnosis and indicated he's a man capable of
playing deranged to work the system.
Leaving the courtroom, in
the few seconds Nikko Jenkins appeared before the wall of waiting TV cameras, he
shouted out something or other in the language of his serpent god, disappearing
behind a door on his way back to jail.
