RICHLAND CO.—Judge Larry Dunn all but came out and said in the open today that the witnesses in the murder case against Brandon Jenkins need to stay clear of the courtroom when jury selection is going on.
Brandon Jenkins
Instead of saying it himself, he allowed the attorneys for both sides to acquiesce to the wisdom of the sentiment….and while none of the above came right out and said it, the unspoken sentiment was there: there are witnesses in the case whose open hostility will impact jury selection, and the jurors simply don’t need to be exposed to that.
The final pretrial conference was held this afternoon (04.13.12) in Richland County court with Jenkins, the Marine and directional oil well driller from Houston who is charged with killing local thug Michael Scott Earp on November 20, 2011, not having to face any of that open hostility from the repulsive Earp gang. Why none were there is as unknown as why any of them believed they needed to be at ANY of Jenkins’ court appearances at all…but they have been, since they first began back in late November. Sometimes the Earp group (a gang of local petty thugs who have been rumored to be ‘muscle’ for the locals moving dope in Richland—moving it with the knowledge and consent of the local constabulary) showed up largely composed of the flighty females with whom Flavius, Michael Scott, Jonathan Trout and their hangers-on, Casey King and Chris Arteberry have bred freely, and the token male tagging along for no reason other than to babysit while the females cast their hateful glares at Jenkins as he’s walked off the elevator to the jury room in back of the courtroom. But today, there was no crowd or hateful glares; only a couple of observers, neither of whom we recognized. No Earps; no pregnant fillies; no just-birthed offspring. There’s a report (front-page story, actually) in the current edition of the print version that points out that their fires of vengeance may have been suffocated quite a bit ever since Flav Earp was busted for alleged witness intimidation in February. And the gang is going to attempt a poker run tomorrow to “raise funds” to get Scott Earp’s funeral expenses paid. Hm. Wonder if Summers-Kistler is getting ready to file suit against one or more of the deadbeats. We’ll have to see.
The hearing today was interesting, with defense attorney John O’Gara making it clear he’s going to work the case as self-defense, and as such, he’s going to be presenting criminal history and activities of those in and around Scott Earp leading up to that night. That should be some labor-intensive stuff. He met with only limited objection (if any at all) from the state’s counsel, David Rands (duly-elected prosecutor David Hyde said not a word during the entire 35-minute proceeding, all kicked back away from the table.) Jenkins looked like he was holding his own. O’Gara looked downright perky. Ang tried to get Jenkins’ attention from where we were sitting in the elevator lobby, but he didn’t seem to be inclined to look around (probably because of all the Earp fillies in the past shooting him evil glances….which appears to be their only weapon/recourse, such as it is). O’Gara did say ‘hi’ to us though.
You can still support Jenkins, in spirit or monetarily, and we suggest you do. As well, as things move toward the trial, we’re going to try to increase national media coverage on the matter; keep watching for how we’re going to go about doing that.
Anyway, prospective jurors won’t have to contend with anyone in the courtroom who’s going to be called as a witness, at least; court authorities believe they’ll have to go through three jury panels to seat 14; and everything kicks off on Tuesday, April 24. We’ll be there. You be watching right here, and we promise…you WON’T be disappointed.