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Thread: John Dabritz Sentenced to LWOP in 2020 NV Murder of Sgt. Ben Jenkins

  1. #1
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    John Dabritz Sentenced to LWOP in 2020 NV Murder of Sgt. Ben Jenkins





    Highway patrol sergeant slain in northeast Nevada; man held

    By Ken Ritter
    AP

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — A veteran highway patrol sergeant was shot and killed a little before dawn Friday on a highway in a remote area of northeastern Nevada, and a 65-year-old man who fled with his uniform and patrol vehicle was arrested several hours later, authorities said.

    Sgt. Ben Jenkins, 47, died in the shooting about 6 a.m. on U.S. 93 north of the White Pine County seat of Ely, state public safety Director George Togliatti said in a statement. Togliatti described Jenkins, a 12-year department veteran, as a lifelong community servant and volunteer from Elko who won the department’s highest honor, the Gold Medal of Valor, in 2011.

    John Dabritz, a resident of the tiny White Pine County mining town of Ruth, was arrested about four hours later after he was found in the crashed highway patrol pickup truck in a ditch not far from the Lincoln County line, officials said.

    Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee, whose deputies were involved in the search, said materials identified as possible explosives were found and that it appeared Dabritz acted alone.

    Dabritz on Monday tried to buy a full-page advertisement at the local Ely Times newspaper, said reporter Kay Lynn Roberts-McMurray, who noted that she called White Pine County sheriff’s deputies to report that Dabritz appeared confused.

    “His conversation was very broken and not making sense,” Roberts-McMurray said. She said Dabritz told her he had spent time in mental health treatment in Las Vegas, that he was a former nuclear scientist, and that he had information about the origin of the worldwide spread of new coronavirus.

    Dabritz also left a package at the locked door of a local court, Roberts-McMurray said.

    White Pine County sheriff’s officials were not immediately available Friday for comment.

    The shooting happened after Jenkins reported he was stopping to assist a motorist on the highway, NHP Col. Daniel Solow told reporters. It was the kind of routine offer of help that troopers provide all the time, Solow said. The site is more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Las Vegas and 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Reno.

    Dabritz had multiple weapons and was previously known to law enforcement officers, Lee said.

    Togliatti said Jenkins was a married father of four with five grandchildren. He was a former state fire marshal training officer, a crew supervisor for the state Division of Forestry, an assistant volunteer fire chief in Spring Creek and a veteran of the Army National Guard and Air National Guard. He joined the highway patrol in March 2008.

    “Without question, Sgt. Jenkins was a hero to his community, his law enforcement colleagues, the state of Nevada and our country,” Togliatti said.

    Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered state and U.S. flags to fly at half-staff until sunset Monday in Jenkins’ honor. The governor called the death tragic and senseless, and said he believed Jenkins “undoubtedly saved many lives throughout his career in law enforcement.”

    Jenkins was the first NHP officer killed in the line of duty since Trooper Kara Kelly-Borgognone died in a crash near Sparks in February 2008.

    https://apnews.com/e2438ab59c00018472759927e531fe95
    Last edited by Steven; 05-13-2022 at 09:15 AM.

  2. #2
    Wilso
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    ‘I had shot him.’ Man pleads guilty in Highway Patrol sergeant’s killing

    A 67-year-old man pleaded “guilty but mentally ill” Monday morning in an ambush-style shooting early last year that left a Nevada Highway Patrol sergeant dead.

    In exchange, White Pine County prosecutors pulled capital punishment off the table.

    “The officer had come up to the side of the road, and I had shot him,” defendant John Dabritz told White Pine County District Judge Steve Dobrescu. “He was killed.”

    Shackled and dressed in orange jail garb, Dabritz, who has been in custody at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, was present alongside his attorneys for Monday’s hearing in Ely, which was livestreamed.

    State law allows a judge in such cases, where a defendant pleads “guilty but mentally ill” to first-degree murder, to impose “a punishment less than death.”

    As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors are expected to ask the judge in late September to sentence Dabritz to life without the possibility of parole.

    By withdrawing his original plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, Dabritz, who is diagnosed with Type 1 bipolar disorder, also eliminated the need for a trial, which had been scheduled to begin in September.

    Dabritz is charged with first-degree murder, third-degree arson, grand larceny of a motor vehicle and grand larceny of a firearm in connection with the killing of Sgt. Ben Jenkins on March 27, 2020, just north of Ely. Authorities have said that after the shooting, Dabritz stripped Jenkins of his uniform and weapon before fleeing in the sergeant’s patrol vehicle, prompting an hourslong manhunt.

    In a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, White Pine County District Attorney James Beecher said the offer was extended “to provide the family with swift and final closure, without protracted appeals or requiring them to relive the horrific incident through trial.”

    Beecher added: “The decision to come to this resolution was made in close consultation with the family of Sergeant Benjamin Jenkins and multiple law enforcement agencies.”

    In the days after the killing, the Review-Journal learned that Dabritz had long suffered from bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and had spent the weeks leading up to the shooting on a paranoid quest to warn people of his theory that COVID-19 was spreading through the water and sewer systems.

    His efforts landed him at William Bee Ririe Hospital in Ely on a legal mental health hold before he was flown around March 14 to Desert Parkway Behavioral Healthcare Hospital in Las Vegas. He was released on March 20, court records show, a week before Jenkins was killed.

    “The thing is they let him out, and they really shouldn’t have,” the defendant’s younger brother, Karl, previously told the Review-Journal. “He was totally out of his mind, if you know what I mean.”

    Desert Parkway has not responded to requests for comment.

    A psychiatrist, who, under court order, had treated Dabritz following his arrest echoed many of the Review-Journal’s findings during a competency hearing in October.

    At the hearing, Dr. Steven Zuchowski testified that Dabritz has a “very classic presentation” of Type 1 bipolar disorder. Symptoms that led to the diagnosis, according to Zuchowski, included paranoia, extreme irritability and anger “that was very difficult for him to control and would have been impossible for someone to fake in any kind of sustained way.”

    Authorities have said the shooting unfolded just before dawn on a remote stretch of U.S. Highway 93 shortly after Jenkins pulled over to check on a stranded driver.

    During Jenkins’ interactions with the driver, Beecher has said, “there was no expressed provocation” prior to the first gunshot.

    “Officer shot, officer shot!” Jenkins yelled into his radio, according to a video captured by his body camera. The footage of the officer’s final moments was shown publicly for the first time in November during a preliminary hearing in the case.

    Jenkins collapsed to the snow-covered ground.

    “I’ve been shot in the right shoulder,” Jenkins said, breathing heavily, as he tried to crawl toward his patrol vehicle. “I’ve —”

    Another round went off, according to the video, and Jenkins stopped moving. It would be his final dispatch.

    His killing marked the Highway Patrol’s first death in the line of duty in more than a decade. In his honor, the agency retired the sergeant’s patrol number, H-4196, during a memorial service last summer in Elko, the community he served for more than 21 years.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...lling-2406919/

  3. #3
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    Man who admitted killing Nevada trooper gets life in prison

    AP

    ELY, Nev. (AP) — A 67-year-old Nevada man with acknowledged bipolar disorder was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for ambushing and killing a veteran highway patrol sergeant on a remote state highway in March 2020.

    John Leonard Dabritz, a former resident of the small White Pine County mining town of Ruth, avoided a death penalty trial when he changed his plea in July to guilty but mentally ill in the death of Sgt. Ben Jenkins, a decorated highway patrol officer from Elko.

    White Pine County District Judge Steve Dobrescu told Dabritz at sentencing the shooting was “haunting” and “pure evil,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

    “Whatever was driving or not driving you makes no difference,” the judge said. “You took the life of a man who stopped to help you.”

    White Pine County District Attorney James Beecher had said he agreed to let Dabritz withdraw his earlier plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and avoid a trial to provide Jenkins’ family “with swift and final closure, without protracted appeals or requiring them to relive the horrific incident.”

    Dabritz, shackled and dressed in orange jail scrubs, was swiftly led away by officers after sentencing.

    Dabritz was previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder and held in custody at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.

    He underwent about two months of treatment at a psychiatric facility before he was deemed competent last year to stand trial on murder, arson, vehicle and firearms theft charges.

    Authorities said Dabritz was heavily armed and fled with Jenkins’ uniform and patrol pickup truck before crashing and surrendering as troopers and sheriffs deputies arrived not far from the White Pine-Lincoln County line.

    Following the killing, the Review-Journal reported that Dabritz spent weeks leading up to the shooting on a paranoid quest to warn people of his theory that COVID-19 was spreading through the water and sewer systems.

    His was treated at William Bee Ririe Hospital in Ely and at a behavioral health hospital in Las Vegas before his release one week before Jenkins was killed.

    Jenkins, a 47-year-old married father of four, won the highway patrol’s highest honor, the Gold Medal of Valor, in 2011.

    Officials said he stopped to check on an apparently stranded vehicle just before dawn on U.S. Highway 93 outside Ely — more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Las Vegas.

    Jenkins was the ninth NHP officer killed in the line of duty since 1911. A 10th, Trooper Micah May, died July 29 — just days after Dabritz changed his plea — when he was struck by a vehicle driven by an armed carjacking suspect trying to elude troopers on a busy freeway near the Las Vegas Strip.

    https://apnews.com/article/health-cr...85e70b6157e7bf

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