Facing Execution, Nikko Jenkins Continues His Bizarre Legal Journey

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.

How the Murder of a Police Officer led to Greeks Fleeing Omaha.

                               COURTS & COPS CRIMINAL HISTORY

It started with the killing of a police officer 100 years ago. Within hours an ugly and violent bit of history scarred Omaha. The Greeks were all but driven out of town. Those “filthy Greeks,” according to a flyer that made the rounds. As bad as it was, Omaha today knows almost nothing about it.

Headline in the Omaha Bee, February 21, 1909.

John Masourides moved from his native Greece, drifting occasionally to South Omaha where he had family. This was before it had merged with Omaha. The Greeks worked side by side with immigrants fresh from all over Europe. The Irish got there first and didn’t like the newcomers. 

Police kept their eyes on Masourides, a man with a reputation. Some people complained he kept company with a 17-year-old girl. She’d made a little bit of money teaching English to the Greeks. That was reason enough for police officer Ed Lowery to arrest Masourides for vagrancy. It was a Friday, Feb. 20, 1909. 

On the way to the police department there was a struggle and gunshots. One bullet wounded Masourides and another killed Officer Lowery. There were conflicting stories about whether the officer tried to kill his suspect and Masourides fought back, or if the suspect attempted an escape. Either way, South Omaha exploded.

More than a hundred men, ready for a lynching, attacked the horse-drawn ambulance carrying Masourides. Police managed to get their suspect locked in the county jail but the anger did not let up.

The next day a leader in the Irish community told a protesting crowd “it is about time for the citizens to take steps to rid the city of this menace.” He meant the Greeks. 

On Sunday, Feb. 21, an armed mob stormed the neighborhood where most Greek families lived. Shouting “Kill the Greeks” and throwing rocks, they began to set fire to homes, beating people who fled the fires. Stoked by their own hatred, they found new targets: the Poles, Italians, Hungarians…anyone with an olive complexion or suspect accent. The riot lasted more than six hours, only calming by midnight. Dozens were wounded. Homes and businesses worth a quarter of a million dollars were destroyed.(Read The Los Angeles Herald's coverage of the riot here)

Headline from the Ogden, Utah Standard

Newspapers reported at the time that every Greek family fled South Omaha. The meatpacking houses, where many had jobs, suddenly found themselves with a labor shortage. Hundreds packed up what belongings they had left and never returned to Nebraska. The census counted up to 3,000 Greeks in the area before the riot. The next census counted slightly more than 500 in Omaha and South Omaha combined.

The man whose arrest stirred the anti-Greek sentiment was convicted of murder. Twice. John Masourides was sentenced to death by hanging at his first trial. The verdict was thrown out by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which found the evidence insufficient to support a charge of first-degree murder. A year later Masourides was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was released from prison five years later. 

(Background for this story comes from an article in Nebraska History magazine, The Anti-Greek Riot of 1909, newspaper accounts of the day, and a report prepared on the riot for the United States House of Representatives). 

BREAKING NEWS: No Lethal Injection Drug Supply in Nebraska.

The Department of Correctional Services confirmed to NET News this afternoon that Nebraska has no drugs with which to carry out a death sentence. 

Responding to email questions NET News submitted this afternoon, Dawn-Renee Smith, the Public Information Coordinator for DOC confirmed that the supply of sodium thiopental acquired by the state expired in December of 2013.  Smith added:  "The Department has not secured additional chemicals."


 

Smith was also asked if the state had identified any new suppliers for the drugs.  In her emailed reply she stated:  "We are looking at all aspects of the lethal injection process. I don’t have anything definitive on that at this time."


The questions followed today's hearing before the Nebraska Supreme Court (reported here earlier) at which the State Attorney General's Office said they were not sure if the a legal source for the lethal injection drugs had been secured. 

Cult Killer Ryan: Review Legality of Lethal Injection

Nebraska wants to proceed with its first execution by lethal injection, but whether the State has... or can obtain... the drugs it needs legally is up in the air.  During a hearing before the Nebraska Supreme Court today Justice William Connolly asked if the Department of Corrections had the sodium thiopental it needed.  Assistant Attorney General James D. Smith responded: "I have not inquired about it for this hearing. I am not able to say that we are in a position to meet those requirements."  

Most of the arguments heard today turned on whether Ryan was using the correct legal pathway to challenge the method of execution.  

Michael Ryan (Photo: DOC)

Ryan was sentenced to death in 1986 for murdering two people on a farm near Rulo, Neb. which he ruled over as a near-messianic cult leader.  After a stay in execution in 2012 Ryan filed a post-conviction appeal in Richardson County, where the crime occurred.  The judge dismissed the argument, stating it was not the appropriate way to challenge the method of execution, only validity of the sentence itself.  The State Attorney General wants that ruling to stand.

During the Supreme Court hearing today Ryan's attorney, Robert Kortus, stated while he believes drugs bought by the State of Nebraska for lethal injection were purchased illegally, that claim, wasn't "the main story" he hoped to tell the court.  Kortus represents Ryan through the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy.  

Kortus asked the Court to take a broader view and to include reviewing the method of execution as part of the second legal pathway open after the verdict has been rendered:  post-conviction relief.  It would be a benefit to the high court, according to Kortus, because it would give the Justices  "the right to review the legality of the method of execution used by the state" in a manner more often left to Federal judges.  

Arguing for the Nebraska Attorney General's office, James Smith said the courts had already rejected that approach.  He noted the Supreme Court would have to over rule three of their own rulings in death row cases issued in the last ten years.

Sodium Thiopental (Evidence Photo)

Most of the publicity and debate over Nebraska's death penalty of late has been how and where the drugs were obtained.  Much of the material filed in court emphasizes the state’s bungled attempt to acquire the pharmaceuticals needed to carry out the execution.  

Ryan's pivotal argument focused on whether there a risk that the drug or drugs used could result in “cruel and unusual punishment” which would be forbidden by the state’s (and U.S.) Constitution.  There was little discussion of that during today's hearing. 

Meanwhile, the source of Nebraska's lethal injection drugs remains murky.  The current supply purchased by the Department of Corrections has likely had to have been thrown out because they are past their legal expiration dates.  

One problem was the supply chain the state chose to use to get its supply of the crucial anesthetic drug sodium thiopental.  Nebraska used an overseas broker who supplied drugs manufactured by an Indian pharmaceutical maker.  The drugs were not approved or tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  Questions remain as to whether that step was necessary.  In addition, the Swiss company that made the drug maker claimed the drugs had been stolen and should never have been sold for use in executions. 

Nebraska Attorney General  Jon Bruning earlier dismissed the entire line of appeal as "a sideshow.”

Instead discussion focused on previous Supreme Court rulings limiting the legal pathways death row inmates could follow to challenge the method of execution.  In three separate rulings the Justices maintained they could only be heard as a civil rights claim.  These matters are largely handled in the Federal Courts.

In the 1980s Ryan, an unemployed truck driver, developed strong anti-government beliefs and his own warped interpretation of the Old Testament.  A small group came together on a communal farm in rural Richardson County.  Eventually two members of the group were murdered.

Luke Stice, the five-year-old son of a cult member was struck and killed by Ryan.  Later the cult leader announced one man, James Thimm, was no longer a true believer. Ryan oversaw a sickening day-long session of torture that lead to Thimm’s death. Four other men were convicted of taking part. Ryan was sentenced to death.  

The state has not been able to implement any execution since 1997 when Robert Williams became the last man to die in the state’s electric chair.