Opening remarks offer 2 scenarios

A DNA expert is expected to be the first witness this morning.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Saying that the only DNA found on the body of Deana Jenkins the night she was found strangled in her home was that of her husband, David, the prosecution laid out a case that will use scientific evidence and time lines as its proof.
Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, told the jury Wednesday that testimony in the murder trial of the former Harding High girls basketball coach will show that Deana Jenkins was with David Jenkins only 30 to 35 minutes before she called a friend indicating she needed help.
Defense lawyer J. Gerald Ingram, conversely, told the jury that testimony will show that Jenkins was not home at the time Deana Jenkins died May 20, 2004. The prosecutor must "convince you that he was home," Ingram said.
The jury of nine women and three men was seated in the Trumbull County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge Peter Kontos around 3 p.m., and opening statements followed soon after.
Jury selection took longer than normal because of extensive questioning of witnesses about their knowledge of the case from press reports. A DNA expert from North Carolina is expected to be the first witness at 9:30 a.m. today.
Divorce plans
Becker said testimony will show that not long before she died, Deana Jenkins had told friends she had moved up her plans one year to divorce her husband in May 2004 instead of May 2005 -- when her youngest daughter, Desirae, was to graduate from high school.
Detailing a series of events on May 20, Becker said testimony will show that Deana's close friend and co-worker, Bernadette McElroy, drove to the Jenkins home to drop off CDs for a party Deana and Bernadette were planning for that weekend. Deana and David were there together when she left at 5:50 to 5:55 p.m.
At 6:25 p.m. Cleotonia Heller, another close female friend of Deana's, received a call on her cell phone, Becker said.
"Toni will tell you that her friend, Deana Jenkins, said she needed help in the house," Becker said. "She will tell you that she sounded as if she was having trouble breathing when the phone went dead."
Calls were made to Heller's husband, Neil, a Warren firefighter, and another friend, Karen Osborne. Neil Heller and Osborne got to the Jenkins house by 6:30, Becker said, and began a frantic search for Deana.
The friends made it into the locked house through a window, but did not find her, Becker said. Her body was finally discovered in Desirae's closet around 8:30 p.m.
In the hours after the friends rushed to the Jenkins home, David Jenkins was found to have a scratch on his face and was sweating a great deal, Becker said. Becker and Ingram differed on whether May 20 was a cold or warm day.
Defense scenario
Ingram also laid out the events of May 20, highlighting how David, Desirae and his son, Durrell, drove to David's parents' house around 4:30 p.m. to borrow a truck, while Deana stayed home cooking dinner.
Then David returned home by himself to get his wallet, talked to two boys in the street, went into the house, talked Deana into making love and then walked around the house while Deana and Bernadette talked outside, and then he left.
"For the time being, suffice it to say when he saw Deana talking to Bernadette, it was the last time he saw his wife alive," Ingram said.