Nurse testifies she saw final shot in killing

Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 12, 2003

[6/13/03]The nurse and neighbor in whose yard a Kings shooting victim died last June testified Wednesday that she saw the final shot fired from just feet away.

Patricia Kinnard, an emergency-room nurse at River Region Medical Center, told jurors she was watering flowers at her home, near the southern end of Ford Road, when two young men came running toward her.

“All of a sudden I heard two gunshots,” Kinnard said, referring to shots four other witnesses testified Wednesday were fired about 100 yards north on Ford Road.

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“I saw two boys running down the street,” she said, adding that “one had a gun.”

One of the men she identified as Tyrone Jenkins, 28, who is accused of murder along with his brother, Kevin Jenkins, 33. Witnesses have said they saw Kevin Jenkins driving the vehicle in which the two arrived at and fled the scene. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

The other man Kinnard said ran to her house that night, June 5, 2002, was Dean Johnson, a 21-year-old neighbor who was killed that night.

Four other witnesses, all also residents of the residential Ford subdivision who were gathered that night near where the shooting began, testified to seeing Tyrone Jenkins holding a pistol while pursuing Johnson and hearing several shots fired as he gave chase on foot.

Testimony has indicated the chase took place on and just east of Ford Road shortly before 8:30 p.m. It ended near the foot of an outdoor staircase of Kinnard’s home, she said.

“Dean slipped and fell,” she told the jury. “I had watered the grass.” An audience of 25 to 30 spectators has also watched the trial, which began Monday in Warren County Circuit Court with Judge Isadore Patrick presiding.

Kinnard said she was climbing the steps to her deck backwards, with Johnson, then back on his feet, following her within arm’s length. Both were facing Jenkins, armed with a pistol, she said.

“I was on the third step and (Johnson) was still on the ground,” she said, adding that she was about 5 feet above the ground and Jenkins was about 15 feet away.

“It seemed like I heard him holler, Mookie, man, don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me,'” she said, quoting Johnson addressing Jenkins by his nickname.

“I’m hollering, Don’t shoot him,'” Kinnard said, “Don’t shoot. He’s too close up on me.'”

Jenkins pulled the trigger nevertheless, and Johnson fell on top of her on the grass below, Kinnard said.

State medical examiner Dr. Stephen Hayne, who performed an autopsy on Johnson’s body, also testified Wednesday. He said Johnson was shot three times, including two shots that were non-lethal and one that caused his death, of internal bleeding.

“Miss Pat, I’m sorry,” she recalled Jenkins saying to her after firing the last shot. “I’m going to get you some help.”

He then got into a sport-utility vehicle and was driven away, she said. Witnesses had testified they saw Jenkins exit a vehicle of the same description just before the shooting began and that Kevin Jenkins was the driver.

Testimony on Tuesday indicated Johnson had assaulted Tyrone Jenkins with a brick about eight hours before the shooting started.

James Penley, representing Tyrone Jenkins, questioned Vicksburg Police investigations Lt. Billy Brown, who also testified Wednesday.

“Did you find out that Dean Johnson had threatened to kill Tyrone Jenkins?” Penley asked Brown of his investigation.

“I don’t remember it being told to me like that,” Brown replied.

Lakeshia Blue, who said she also lived in the neighborhood and was a first cousin of Johnson’s, said the first shot Jenkins fired hit the hood of her vehicle, and that three or four shots were fired.

Tyrone Jenkins chased Johnson south on Ford Road, which is less than one-half mile long, and behind some houses to the east of there, she said. Kevin Jenkins, meanwhile, “drove behind, just driving down the street,” she said.

By the time Jenkins’ vehicle drew even with Kinnard’s home, several of those who had been gathered, with Johnson, in the yard toward which shots were first fired had begun moving toward the vehicle, Blue said. At one point Kevin Jenkins stopped and exited the vehicle, armed, she said.

“He held a gun,” she said. “He didn’t point it at us, but he just let us know to get back.'”

Minutes after the shooting was reported, Vicksburg Police Lt. Bobby Stewart spotted the Jenkinses’ vehicle traveling south on North Washington Street, he testified.

Assistant District Attorney John Bullard, who is representing the state in the courtroom, showed jurors a videotape made from a camera mounted in Stewart’s car. The vehicle could be seen as Stewart followed it to police headquarters, where both Jenkinses were arrested.

The Vicksburg Police crime-scene investigator said he went to the scene the night of the shooting and recovered three shell casings near where witnesses said it began and one about two or three feet away from where Johnson’s body was found.

Blue said the first shot fired hit the front of her vehicle. Melinda Jones, who said she and family members, including Johnson, were gathered in her front yard, testified that “a bullet shell hit my arm.”