Johnny99
Senior Reporter
Dad charged in 5 kids' drownings
Body of 4-year-old Houston girl remains missing
By DALE LEZON, MOISES MENDOZA and ANITA HASSANBody of 4-year-old Houston girl remains missing
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
April 20, 2009, 7:03PM
A 32-year-old Houston man's breath test showed he was legally intoxicated two and a half hours after he drove into a water-filled ditch in north Houston on Saturday, drowning five children who were passengers in the car, a prosecutor said today.
Chanton Jenkins was charged Sunday with four counts of intoxication manslaughter and could face 80 years in prison if convicted on
all charges. Each carries a two- to 20-year sentence and a fine of up to $10,000, said Harris County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Donna Hawkins.
None of the children in the car was buckled in, according to prosecutors.
Jenkins made a brief appearance today in a probable cause courtroom adjacent to the Harris County jail. A judge determined there was reason to hold him until his next scheduled setting Tuesday in state district court.
At the hearing, a prosecutor said Jenkins' two breath tests registered blood alcohol levels of 0.079 percent and 0.082 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.
The prosecutor also said an officer at the scene suspected Jenkins might have been under the influence of a drug. A blood test is pending.
The only reply Jenkins gave in court was when he was asked about an attorney. He said he would hire one.
Meanwhile, authorities today resumed searching the banks of Greens Bayou for the body of the fifth victim, 4-yea
r-old Hallie Jenkins. Searchers had not found her by midday.
“The waiting is just horrible,”� said Valerie Jones, a cousin of the victims.
By Monday evening, the water in the canal had dropped to very shallow levels. The crash site, marked with flowers, balloons, stuffed animals and a giant Winnie the Pooh, drew total strangers, who also wanted to leave mementoes for the children.
"My heart just goes out to the family," said Carolyn Davis of Houston, a mother of two and grandmother of one, who said she did not know the victims. She had stopped along the site, on a road she travels daily, to leave balloons and flowers.
"I just can’t imagine what this lady’s going through," Davis said, referring to one of the mothers. "I don’t want to imagine what she’s going through. I passed by, and I don’t even know them, but I just broke down."
Child Protective Services caseworkers will investigate the deaths of all five children, as well as the home life
of a child who survived.
CPS caseworkers also will investigate if there are any other children living in any of the victims’ homes to make sure the surviving young ones are safe and being raised in an appropriate environment, said CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin. Caseworkers want to know if the parents of any of the children knew Jenkins was drinking and driving Saturday or if they are aware of him driving intoxicated with the children on any previous occasions, Olguin said.
CPS also will provide any resources necessary to the families to help them cope with the deaths of their children.
"They’ve suffered a great loss, and we want to be able to help the families," Olguin said. "Because if they’re still parents to other children and they’ve lost these children, they’re going to need help."
Jenkins was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone when he veered off the road in the 2200 block of Greens Road during heavy storms Saturday.
“It was a freak accident. He
was talking and said ‘dang!’ and then I assumed he dropped the phone,”� said Tracy Easley, who was the mother of victims Hallie and Karrinton Jenkins.
Jenkins, his adult brother and 10-year-old Jada Barnes managed to scramble out of the 2000 Lincoln LS after the vehicle crashed down an embankment and ended up submerged in about 9 feet of water. Jada was recovering from minor scrapes and bruises Sunday.
The bodies of three boys — 4-year-old Devin Jenkins, 7-year-old Malik Barlow and 11-year-old Dreyton Thompson — were recovered from the Lincoln sedan early Sunday morning by Houston Police Department dive team members.
Around noon, searchers found the body of 1-year-old Karrinton a half mile from the crash.
Criminal record
Officials said Chanton Jenkins failed a field sobriety test at the scene, officers smelled a strong odor of alcohol on his
breath and he was talking rapidly and making different statements as to how many people were in the car.
Jenkins, the father of at least three of the deceased children, has a criminal record in Harris County dating back to 1994. Most recently he was sentenced to 10 months in jail on drug-related charges.
The two men were cooperating with police, said Houston police spokesman Kese Smith.
Family members remembered the children as sweet and fun-loving.
Easley described Karrinton as “the boss of the family.”�
“She was the baby in the family and she ran everything. Hallie was the princess. She was the little diva,”� Easley said. “She was prissy and she always walked on her tiptoes.”�
Devin was a little pistol who liked to challenge everything he was told, Easley said.
Brothers Malik and Dreyton played football and basketball and participated on a step team that their 24-year-old uncle Travis Campbell helped organize.
“If you knew them, you
would have just fallen in love with them,”� said Malik’s godmother Tywanna Harris.
The two were inseparable.
“If Dreyton had a chance to get out of that car, I bet he thought, not without my brother. That was just his mentality,”� said the boys’ aunt, Sonya Diamond.
Easley said that when she lost contact with Jenkins Saturday evening she felt a pang of fear and rushed to the area where she thought he had been driving.
Police officers at the bayou held her back from the scene.
“I knew,”� she said, wiping her eyes.
