David Gordon JenkinsOne of four men charged in Franklin County, Tenn., in the March 2013 cornfield killing of Corey N. Matthews was convicted of murder on Thursday.
The jury deliberated about an hour and a half before finding 48-year-old David Gordon Jenkins guilty of first-degree murder after a four-day trial in Winchester, according to 12th Judicial District Assistant District Attorney Steve Blount.
The conviction carries a sentence of life in prison, but presiding Judge Thomas Graham will have to decide how Jenkins’ previous probation will figure into his sentence, Blount said Friday. Jenkins was on probation for a drug charge at the time of Matthews’ slaying and the murder sentence could be served consecutively or concurrently with the sentence on the earlier conviction, depending on the judge’s decision at a hearing set for June 9. A person sentenced to life under current state law is not eligible for parole until they have served 51 years.
The three other defendants in the slaying, John Corey Lanier, 26, Todd E. Dalton, 39, and Coty Keith Holmes, 25, are all charged with first-degree murder and felony murder in Matthews’ death. The ages are listed as they were upon the men’s arrests.
They will be tried separately if their cases go to trial, officials say.