Dad charged in 5 kids' drownings

A 32-year-old Houston man's breath test showed he was legally intoxicated two and a half hours after he drove into a water-filled ditch in north Houston on Saturday, drowning five children who were passengers in the car, a prosecutor said today.

Chanton Jenkins was charged Sunday with four counts of intoxication manslaughter and could face 80 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Each carries a two- to 20-year sentence and a fine of up to $10,000, said Harris County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Donna Hawkins.
None of the children in the car was buckled in, according to prosecutors.

Jenkins made a brief appearance today in a probable cause courtroom adjacent to the Harris County jail. A judge determined there was reason to hold him until his next scheduled setting Tuesday in state district court.
At the hearing, a prosecutor said Jenkins' two breath tests registered blood alcohol levels of 0.079 percent and 0.082 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 percent. A blood test is pending.

Meanwhile, authorities this morning resumed searching the banks of Greens Bayou for the body of the fifth victim, 4-year-old Hallie Jenkins.

“The waiting is just horrible,” said Valerie Jones, a cousin of the victims.
Jenkins was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone when he veered off the road in the 2200 block of Greens Road during heavy storms Saturday.
“It was a freak accident. He was talking and said ‘dang!’ and then I assumed he dropped the phone,” said Tracy Easley, who was the mother of victims Hallie and Karrinton.
Jenkins, his adult brother and 10-year-old Jada Barnes managed to scramble out of the 2000 Lincoln LS after the vehicle crashed down an embankment and ended up submerged in about 9 feet of water. Jada was recovering from minor scrapes and bruises Sunday.

The bodies of three boys — 4-year-old Devin Jenkins, 7-year-old Malik Barlow and 11-year-old Dreyton Thompson — were recovered from the Lincoln sedan early Sunday morning by Houston Police Department dive team members.
About mid-day, searchers found the body of 1-year-old Karrinton a half mile from the crash.
Criminal record
Officials said Chanton Jenkins failed a field sobriety test at the scene, officers smelled a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and he was talking rapidly and making different statements as to how many people were in the car.
Jenkins, the father of at least three of the deceased children, has a criminal record in Harris County dating back to 1994. Most recently he was sentenced to 10 months in jail on drug-related charges.

The two men were cooperating with police, said Houston police spokesman Kese Smith.
Family members remembered the children as sweet and fun-loving.
Easley described Karrinton as “the boss of the family.”

“She was the baby in the family and she ran everything. Hallie was the princess. She was the little diva,” Easley said. “She was prissy and she always walked on her tiptoes.”
Devin was a little pistol who liked to challenge everything he was told, Easley said.
Brothers Malik and Dreyton played football and basketball and participated on a step team that their 24-year-old uncle Travis Campbell helped organize.

“If you knew them, you would have just fallen in love with them,” said Malik’s godmother Tywanna Harris.
The two were inseparable.
“If Dreyton had a chance to get out of that car, I bet he thought, not without my brother. That was just his mentality,” said the boys’ aunt, Sonya Diamond.


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