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Stabbing death came in self-defense, court says

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published October 12, 2006

TAMPA - Melvin Stacy Jenkins has served five brief sentences in Florida state prisons.

But he won't have to complete his sixth - and longest - prison term.

On Wednesday, 11/2 years after a circuit judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison, an appellate court overturned Jenkins' conviction for manslaughter and said he should go free.

The reason: Jenkins acted in self-defense when he fatally stabbed a man who had threatened him outside his Tampa mobile home, appellate judges said.

"We conclude that Mr. Jenkins established his claim of self-defense and that the state failed to present legally sufficient evidence to overcome that defense," Judge Chris Altenbernd wrote.

Jenkins' family and Anthony Candela, the assistant public defender who handled the case, could not be reached Wednesday evening.

But John Skye, a spokesman for the Hillsborough Public Defender's Office, said attorneys would begin working this morning to get Jenkins out of prison as soon as possible.

"We're always gratified when the appellate court accepts our legal or factual argument, especially to a self-defense claim," Skye said. "We're happy for Mr. Jenkins."

Jenkins' troubles occurred on March 19, 2004, when his 15-year-old daughter had a disagreement with a woman at a nearby apartment complex. Soon after the argument, the woman's boyfriend, 25-year-old Bryan Cerezo, showed up at Jenkins' home at 4408 N Hubert Ave. in Drew Park.

Jenkins, who testified at his trial, said he repeatedly told Cerezo to leave. Witnesses described Cerezo as a wild man who claimed to be a gang member and threatened to kill Jenkins and burn down his mobile home.

Cerezo punched Jenkins in the face, according to the appellate ruling. Jenkins, a roofer, pulled out the knife he typically carried for work. Witnesses said Cerezo charged Jenkins, whose knife pierced the man's chest and caused fatal injuries to his heart and liver.

Jenkins fled the scene but turned himself in several days later.

Prosecutors charged Jenkins with manslaughter involving a weapon. After deliberating for six hours, a jury found Jenkins guilty of a lesser offense of manslaughter without a weapon - "an apparent partial jury pardon," appellate judges said.

Because of Jenkins' past criminal record, Circuit Judge William Fuente sentenced him as a habitual offender.

The appellate judges said the lower court should have granted Jenkins' motion for acquittal instead. When a person is attacked in his home or on immediately surrounding premises, the appellate ruling said, he has the right to meet force with force. Individuals can even take a life if personal injury seems imminent.

"We have struggled with this case nearly as hard as the jury struggled," Altenbernd wrote, noting that Jenkins could have stayed inside his trailer and called the police.

But even the state's witnesses identified Cerezo as the aggressor and bolstered Jenkins' self-defense claim.

"Mr. Jenkins was not required to cower in his trailer," the ruling said, "while Mr. Cerezo threatened him and his family and tried to enter the trailer of Mr. Jenkins' wife and children."

[Last modified October 12, 2006, 06:04:36]