Larry Leonardre Jenkins, Jr.
Jesup man to get new trial in Glynn County in shooting deaths 21 years later
Larry Leonardre Jenkins Jr. spent 10 years on death row before sentence was set aside
By Terry Dickson
BRUNSWICK | A Jesup man convicted of murder in the 1993 execution-style shooting deaths of a woman and her son is set to get a new trial starting Sept. 22 before a Glynn County jury.
But in an unusual turnabout, prosecutors have asked Superior Court Judge Stephen G. Scarlett to allow them to use evidence that the original judge ruled out, Larry L. Jenkins Jr.’s confession that he killed Terry Ralston, 37, and her son, Michael, 15.
Jenkins was a 17-year-old student at Wayne County High School when the Ralstons were abducted from their coin-operated laundry in downtown Jesup. During a motions hearing Friday, he sat silently in a pumpkin-colored jail jump suit and with ankles shackled and his hands cuffed in front of him.
Twelve hours after they were abducted as they cleaned the laundry and emptied the coin boxes, the victims’ bodies were discovered near railroad tracks in a swampy, wooded area off Cowboy Road. Terry Ralston was shot once in the head and her son was shot six times.
Jenkins and three of his friends were caught the next day driving Terry Ralston’s Chevrolet Lumina van.
There was evidence they had gone to a bank to pick up wrappers to roll coins. Investigators said about $645 in coins was stolen from the laundry.
A Glynn County jury convicted Jenkins in 1995 of malice murder and gave him the death penalty. But the Georgia Supreme Court set aside the sentence 10 years later saying that Georgia couldn’t execute people for crimes committed when they were juveniles. A few years later, another judge ruled Jenkins’ defense lawyers were ineffective and ordered a new trial.
Blynn Taylor Jr., the judge who presided over Jenkins’ original trial, is dead, as are the state pathologist who did the autopsies and the officer who conducted ballistics tests and linked a .22-caliber pistol with the Ralstons’ deaths.
Prosecutor Andrew Ekonomou asked Scarlett to admit as evidence a 13-page statement that Jenkins made to Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents and signed.
Ekonomou acknowledged that as Jenkins was being booked into the Wayne County jail on Jan. 9, 1993, he told the jailer he wouldn’t answer questions without a lawyer.
But the next day, Jenkins spoke to GBI agents who advised him fully of his rights to remain silent and to have a lawyer present, Ekonomou argued.
Jenkins waived his rights Jan. 10 and again on Jan. 11 when he spoke with the agents again, Ekonomou said.
“Jenkins then led them to the victim’s purse,’’ and other items, Ekonomou said.
Ekonomou said the Jan. 9 statement to the jailer could not be applied to all future interviews with officers.
“You cannot invoke Miranda in anticipation of custodial questioning,’’ he said.
He asserted Taylor erred in doing so and asked Scarlett to let prosecutors use Jenkins’ statement during his second trial.
Public Defender Sophia Butler told Scarlett the statement should remain excluded from evidence.
“The law is the same as when a 17-year-old invoked his right to counsel,’’ Butler said. “Clearly he was asserting his rights at the time when this case was hot and heavy and the press was all over it.”
Public Defender Jonathan Lockwood also asked Scarlett to allow the defense to bring up the now decades old criminal records of possible defense witnesses in order to impeach their testimony before.
Among them were the three young men who fled the Lumina with Jenkins when officers stopped them.
One of them, Jeremiah Campbell, told police that Jenkins had said he had killed two white people. During the trial, however, Campbell didn’t testify to hearing Jenkins make such a statement.
After a short recess, Scarlett told the lawyers he would rule on the motions next week but he needed time to study the law on Ekonomou’s motion to allow him to use Jenkins statements.
In the meantime, Scarlett said, the lawyers should prepare as if he were going to let Taylor’s ruling stand.
Ekonomou said that he will have to call a lot more witnesses if he is not allowed to introduce Jenkins’ statements.
He also told the court that in the case of witnesses who have died, he may have to use transcripts or other evidence that was originally presented in 1995. He will also have to call new experts to present the autopsy and ballistic findings.
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