St. Mary's robber charged in murder in Baltimore

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

John Arthur Jenkins Jr., now 27, was arrested last January through a police investigation of the February 2008 double homicide.

Two other suspects also were charged, police report, in the case that began with the discovery of a mortally wounded man and woman in a wrecked Ford Crown Victoria on West Mount Royal Avenue.

Police determined that the Ford car had almost collided earlier with a Volkswagen Jetta traveling on another street, and a heated exchange commenced between the man driving the Ford and the three people in the Volkswagen.

"They became engaged in some kind of verbal argument, by winding down the windows and continuing to travel down the street," Troy Harris, a public information officer for the city's police department, said this week.

The Ford's driver stopped and stepped out of the vehicle, and gunfire coming from the Volkswagen struck him and his female passenger, Harris said.

The wounded driver got back in the car, and it traveled on until colliding with another vehicle.

The man and woman died at a hospital less than an hour later.

Witness interviews eventually helped identify the three suspects in the case, Harris said.

In addition to his trial toward the end of this month on two charges of first-degree murder, Jenkins is charged with violating his probation in the St. Mary's robbery.

jwharton@somdnews.com