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Daughter of area murder victim meets similar fate in California
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A little more than 11 years after the murder of Deana Jenkins, 39, in her Clearwater Street Northwest home, the family has been rocked again with the apparent murder of Deana’s daughter, Desirae.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner said Desirae L. Jenkins, 28, died Monday. A Los Angeles television station reported that a woman was killed in an apartment in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles. That woman was Jenkins, according to friends of the Jenkins family in the Warren area.
The TV station said a man identified by the medical examiner’s office as Ronald A. Broussard, 68, called 911 at 5:20 a.m. saying he had just shot his girlfriend and was going to shoot himself. When officers arrived, they found Jenkins and Broussard unresponsive.
The medical examiner’s office said Jenkins’ death has been ruled a homicide by gunshot wound to the head. Broussard’s death was ruled suicide, also from a gunshot wound to the head.
A Los Angeles police spokesperson said she could not provide any information on the incident other than what the television station reported.
Bernadette McElroy, a co-worker and close friend of Deana Jenkins, said everyone who knew Desirae is in shock.
“I don’t know what went wrong, but we’re all in total disbelief,” McElroy said.
Desirae was a junior at Warren G. Harding High School when her mother died in May 2004 from strangulation. Deana’s body was found in a closet in the Jenkins family home on Sweetbriar Avenue Southwest.
Her father, David Jenkins, then 42, was convicted nearly two years later of murdering Deana Jenkins and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. David Jenkins was Desirae’s high-school basketball coach for two years leading up to the homicide. He also was a part-time pastor.
By the time her father was convicted at trial, Desirae was attending college away from home. She would later complete her bachelor’s degree at West Virginia University and in 2011, moved to Los Angeles, where she was working for a company that sold fire-protection products such as flame retardants, extinguishers and smoke detectors.
McElroy said Desirae succeeded in life despite the hardships she experienced because of her mother’s murder.
“As far as I knew, she had her life in pretty good order,” McElroy said.
The fact that Desirae apparently died in a domestic incident similar to her mother “makes it even more tragic,” McElroy said.
Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, handled the prosecution in the David Jenkins case and stayed in touch with Desirae.
Desirae testified at the trial about herself and her father’s going shopping in Niles the evening her mother died, possibly just a short time after she was killed.
In 2011, Desirae told Becker about a job she landed with a fire-protection company in Van Nuys, Calif., and Becker told her how he sometimes talked about her when speaking to groups, using her as an example of overcoming challenges.
“People don’t realize how hard things were with the situation that happened, but I never gave up or made an excuse to give up,” Desirae said in an email. “I’m determined to be successful, and I’m doing just that,” she said.
She quoted football coach Vince Lombardi, saying, “The harder the struggle, the harder it is to surrender.”
She added, “I’m glad you use me as an example ... because it can show other people you can overcome and make it through anything.”