2 sides of Philander Jenkins at issue in murder trial

By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune

Last update: February 26, 2008 - 11:02 PM

Philander Jenkins arrived in Hennepin County District Court wearing stylish new eyeglasses and a well-fitted dark suit, looking more like a young lawyer than a defendant facing four murder charges in the slaying of two drug dealers.

Jenkins is charged with killing two friends at a crack house March 14. The trial Tuesday featured emotional testimony from one of the residents.

In her opening statement Monday, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Julie Allyn vividly described shots ringing out in the early morning hours at the house on 29th and Dupont Av. N. She said Jenkins, 24, shot his friends, took a cell phone and their money, then disappeared into the night wearing a black hoodie. Police arrested him within hours at his northeast Minneapolis boarding house and found a big revolver, a victim's cell phone, blood and money in his room.

But defense lawyer Jill Waite said things aren't always what they seem. "Is this really like a poorly worded mystery that the butler did it or in this case the young black man?" she asked. She called the case a "whodunnit."

"It's up to you to figure out what this means," she told the jury.

According to Allyn, Jenkins arrived at the house with two drug-dealing friends, but only he left. Lorenzo Porter, 35, of Champlin, was shot once through the temple. Eugene Curry, 34, of Minneapolis, was shot in the face, chest and back of the head. Both were found in pools of blood with their belts still fastened, but the pants pulled substantially lower than fashionable. Neither man had any money, and Porter's cell phone was missing, Allyn said.

Police Sgt. Charlie Adams noticed the missing cell phone and got the number from Porter's brother. Police determined the phone had been used to call a cab at 4 a.m. -- well after the men's bodies were found -- for a ride from West Broadway Avenue to 18th and Quincy Avenue NE.

Police traced Jenkins' address from 911 calls for a March 12 shooting in which Jenkins received a leg wound.

When police arrived at his boarding house, they found $400, a "big, huge revolver" and the missing cell phone. They found Curry's blood on Jenkins' pants, Allyn said, and Jenkins' DNA was on the gun along with a thumbprint.

But Waite said the trial is about Jenkins. She said Jenkins grew up with an alcoholic mother, who turned her life around and moved to Minneapolis, working two jobs and taking her children for support groups in hopes of helping them avoid drugs.

While Allyn portrayed the case as a culmination of "diligent, insightful" police work, Waite and co-counsel Jill Clark raised the possibility that someone else in the drug house could have killed the men.

The trial is expected to take four weeks.

In recent years, Jenkins has made frequent allegations of police brutality. In August, he was awarded $110,000 by Minneapolis to settle a claim he filed in 2005. He alleged an officer repeatedly kicked him in the head and broke his jaw while he was handcuffed.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747