Ex-deputy charged with 2 killings under scrutiny
By Lori Kurtzman Dec 13, 2015 at 2:00 PM
WAVERLY The death threats began not long after Deputy Joel Jenkins shot and killed a suspect on a rural Pike County road. The county prosecutor, a gun enthusiast, lent Jenkins a couple of pistols for protection.
Months later, Jenkins might have shot his neighbor with one of those guns.
Were just all in shock, said Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk. We would have never in a million years guessed this would have happened.
Pike County is 400-some square miles of southern Ohio hills and winding roads, a place where folks get offended if you dont raise a hand to say hello. It doesnt have a single city. Even the county seat, Waverly, is only big enough to qualify as a village.
People know one another here, and they know one anothers business. Lately, everyone knows the troubles of Jenkins, now a former Pike County deputy sheriff facing the most-serious charge a person can.
Jenkins, 31, was indicted on Thursday on charges of murder and reckless homicide in the earlier death, and involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and tampering with evidence in the more-recent one. A special grand jury heard both cases against Jenkins and decided there was enough evidence to formally accuse him.
Jenkins will have to answer for the March 28 death of Robert Rooker, a 26-year-old whom friends called Padro, and for the Dec. 3 death of Jason Brady, a 40-year-old neighbor who used to feed and walk Jenkins police dog.
Jenkins turned himself in on Friday. His bond was set at $200,000, according to a spokesman for the Ohio attorney generals office. Officials would not tell The Dispatch whether he was still in jail on Friday night.
Jenkins was a deputy with Pike County for about three years and, Junk said, seemed to get along with everyone. He appeared to have none of the issues that had held him back in a previous job as a deputy in Fayette County, where he never made it out of a probationary period.
Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth said Jenkins performance there in 2011 and 2012 was mediocre, and he was reprimanded for running his cruiser into an elderly man in a crosswalk. (The man was injured but survived.)
Our hearts are broken for those families that have lost somebody to his actions, Stanforth said. Its a tragedy, but he doesnt reflect law enforcement. He reflects his own decision-making process.
Details of both Pike County cases involving Jenkins are still fuzzy.
Rooker, who had spent a year in prison in 2009-10 for burglary and theft, was clocked speeding and reportedly rammed two cruisers during an ensuing chase on March 28. His vehicle crashed on a dead-end road 18 miles west of Waverly.
Another officer fired at Rookers vehicle, but Jenkins appears to be the only one whose bullets hit Rooker. No one else has been indicted in the mans death.
A few days after Rooker died, Junk told the Chillicothe Gazette that it looks like the officers were justified in doing what they did, but Rookers friends began calling for further scrutiny into his death.
The states Bureau of Criminal Investigation launched an investigation into the shooting. Jenkins was suspended but later returned to work. In May, Richard Henderson resigned as sheriff, and current Sheriff Charles Reader was chosen as his replacement.
Once I was appointed, I could tell that there were still some issues with Jenkins, Reader said.
The sheriff put Jenkins back on administrative leave and sent him to a mental-health professional.
When he was cleared to return, he headed to training on working with a dog and was paired with one named Gold.
He seemed to be doing fine, Reader said.
Then came the Dec. 3 shooting at Jenkins house. The deputy called a nonemergency line to report that he had accidentally shot Jason Brady in the head.
Brady was the kind of guy who went to every one of his teenage sons ballgames and helped his mother with her medicine each night, said his friend of a decade,
Michael Mead. Friends simply called him Brady. He mowed neighbors lawns free of charge, including Jenkins.
The officers who got to Jenkins house first said it was clear that Jenkins had been drinking. Local authorities called in state investigators, and Jenkins was quickly charged in Bradys death and fired from his job.
The Pike County case has gained national attention as well as curiosity from those who wonder why a prosecutor would lend a gun to a deputy. Junk said thats just how it goes in tight-knit communities such as his. He routinely trades, sells and lends guns to law-enforcement officers and friends.
But hes glad to have distance from the Jenkins prosecution.
Id have a hard time handling a case against someone I know really, really well, he said.
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