Prosecution expected to rest case
A forensic pathologist testified that the woman's death was caused by manual strangulation.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The prosecution in the murder trial of David Jenkins is expected to rest first thing today, with defense witnesses taking the stand shortly thereafter.
On Tuesday, a state DNA expert testified. She was the last person Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker planned to call to testify, he said. The only thing left before the state rests its case, he said, is for exhibits to be entered as evidence.
David Jenkins' attorney, J. Gerald Ingram, said Tuesday he would call witnesses today but wasn't sure whether Jenkins would testify. If convicted of murder, the former Harding High girls basketball coach could be sentenced to 15 years to life.
Pathologist's testimony
Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County's forensic pathologist, testified Tuesday and described the bruises he'd found around Deana Jenkins' neck, on her tongue and upper back and on the top of her head. He said he believed she died of strangulation, probably between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. May 20, 2004.
He testified that records from Deana Jenkins' personal physician and from his examination of the body showed no evidence that she had a problem with her throat closing.
In testimony Monday, two ambulance workers said Jenkins told them the night of the murder that his wife had problems with her throat closing off and had seen a doctor for it.
Dr. Germaniuk said he also found three linear bruises on Deana Jenkins' back that were about 11/2 inches across. In cross examination, Ingram asked Dr. Germaniuk to measure the distance across three of Ingram's fingers and was told the distance was more than 2 inches.
"And I'm a small guy, right?" he asked Dr. Germaniuk. Ingram appeared to be disputing whether Jenkins, a man who stands well over 6 feet tall, could have made marks that narrow with three fingers. Dr. Germaniuk told Ingram he had not requested measurements of Jenkins' hands.
Becker then elicited answers from Dr. Germaniuk indicating that the marks were not necessarily made by fingers.
Dr. Germaniuk also testified to a bruise on Deana Jenkins' tongue and said it is common for strangulation victims to bite down on their tongues. He said Deana Jenkins had bruising just below her rib cage and a chipped tooth. He said she had no bruises on her arms or external genitalia.
Dr. Germaniuk said the bruising on her neck was consistent with manual strangulation, meaning strangulation with the hands, he said.
Threats
Sgt. Michael Merritt, a detective with the Warren Police Department, testified that voice mails and e-mails for Deana Jenkins at the Child Support Enforcement Agency indicated no threats from clients.
On cross-examination, Merritt said that two windows at the Jenkinses' home appeared to be open the night Deana Jenkins died and that he did not investigate whether any keys to the Jenkinses' house were missing.
Lt. Gary Vingle of the Warren police testified he received a voice message from Jenkins on May 25 indicating he wanted police to check into threats his wife had received at work and to look for a stalker who had bothered her during walks around her neighborhood.
Lt. Joe Marhulik with the Warren police testified that he searched the police department's computer-aided dispatch system and found no reports dating from May 2004 back to 2000 indicating complaints of stalkers or other suspicious people in the Jenkinses' Clearwater Street Northwest neighborhood.
Marhulik said he canvassed the neighborhood and found no one who had witnessed any unusual activity around the Jenkinses' home May 20 to indicate that anyone broke into the house.
Evidence
Brenda Gerardi, a DNA expert with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, testified that semen found on the underwear and skirt of Deana Jenkins belonged to David Jenkins and that hair found on duct tape in the kitchen garbage can belonged to Deana Jenkins.
Gerardi testified that the chances of the hair being from anyone other than Deana Jenkins are one in 14 quadrillion; the chances that the sperm came from anyone other than David Jenkins are one in 15 quadrillion; and the chances that the sperm on the skirt came from anyone other than David Jenkins are one in 11 million.
Jenkins has said he made love to his wife the afternoon she died.
Friends of David and Deana Jenkins have described conversations with him in which he said he and his wife used duct tape around a bedroom air conditioner the day she died to keep ants from coming in the house.