Clarke County Democrat

Baseball bat murderer gets 30 years in pen




Sylvester Leggett was sentenced Monday to 30 years in a state penitentiary for the murder of Maury Jenkins in 2010.

Circuit Judge Gaines McCorquodale imposed the sentence following a sentencing hearing. A jury had found Leggett guilty on Oct. 27 following a trial.

Some court observers had termed the murder the “voodoo” murder because some of the defendants had alleged that Jenkins was practicing voodoo in the neighborhood where the murder took place off of Fool’s Acre Road in the Gainestown/Manila area.

However, the voodoo allegations were never proven.

Jenkins and his common law wife, Vanessa Clarke, were staying in a mobile home in the neighborhood when four individuals went to the residence and starting beating on it. They broke the windows out of their car and lured the couple outside and attacked them.

Leggett was said to be the assailant who beat Jenkins to death with an aluminum baseball bat.

Relatives of Leggett testified Monday that he was a good person and deserved mercy. At least one of the relatives said she did not believe that Leggett did what he said he did.

Defense attorney Jim Deshler repeatedly stressed that the court be as lenient as possible. Leggett testified on his own behalf but his words were so soft that most of the courtroom couldn’t hear them.

Matt Drinkard, one of the prosecutors, said, “This is not about mercy. We aren’t in the business of mercy. This is about justice.” Stephen Winters was the other prosecutor for the state.

Judge McCorquodale had to call the spectators down for talking during the proceedings. He warned them to leave the courtroom if they could not conduct themselves properly.

The judge took a short break before imposing the sentence. He did so without elaborating or adding comments to his sentence of 30 years.



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