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Victim's parents blame justice system

A faulty prosecution led to the overturned conviction of their son's killer, they say.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published March 12, 2007

TAMPA - Bryan Cerezo's high school portrait sits in his parents' family room, freeze-framing a time when he seemed ready to steer away from trouble and get on with the future.

His parents had hope then.

Now their son is dead.

Joseph and Penny Cerezo say the criminal justice system failed Bryan. Burdened him with court costs instead of meaningful training after teenage arrests. Presented such a weak case against the man who admits to stabbing him three years ago that an appeals court reversed the manslaughter conviction.

A closer truth is too painful: For all they did to protect their son, they lost him anyway.

- - -

Bryan Cerezo had gone to the Zephyr Dawn Trailer Park in Tampa on March 19, 2004, to visit a friend. The friend's dad, Melvin Stacy Jenkins, told him to leave. Cerezo, 25, refused.

The official account holds that he threatened Jenkins, threw the first punch, then died after Jenkins plunged a knife six inches into his chest.

The Cerezos taught their son better.

"I told him a real man stands by himself," said his father.

"I taught him you never disrespect nobody," said his mother.

Joseph Cerezo earned enough money as an elevator mechanic to work his way out of New York's rough neighborhoods, allowing his family to enjoy the relative security of the suburbs.

He thought Tampa would be even safer. But Bryan, the eldest of six children, started hanging out with a tough crowd at Gaither High, his parents said.

In 10th grade, Bryan got caught with a gun on school property. His parents say fellow students set up Bryan as payback for not joining their gang.

He spent seven months at the Tampa Marine Institute, followed by community control.

Cerezo's counselor cited him as a role model, giving high marks for grades and attitude.

"Bryan is progressing well, and he is demonstrating that he can be a productive member of society," the counselor wrote in a May 9, 1996, report.

Early adulthood tested that prediction. Although Bryan enrolled in community college, his rap sheet lengthened with arrests for criminal mischief, felony battery, probation violation and cocaine possession.

He spent 181 days in jail, many more on community control and probation.

When he died, he was living with a girlfriend and washing dishes off the books at a restaurant because there was a warrant out for his arrest on a probation violation.

- - -

The Cerezos went to court in January 2005 for the manslaughter trial of the man who killed their son.

Pat Dawson, a veteran prosecutor, had a difficult case. She believed Jenkins came out of his trailer armed with a knife and hammer and intending to fight.

Yet witnesses painted Bryan Cerezo as the aggressor. Defense attorney Anthony Candela said Jenkins carried the tools for roofing jobs and was forced to use the knife in self-defense.

Dawson won a conviction. Because of Jenkins' criminal history, which included convictions for burglary and cocaine possession, Circuit Judge William Fuente sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

But the Cerezos left the courthouse furious. They accused Dawson of letting witnesses lie on the stand unchallenged.

They said the conviction wouldn't stick.

They were right.

- - -

They learned from a newspaper story in October that the 2nd District Court of Appeal had overturned Jenkins' conviction on the grounds that he had in fact acted in self defense. Three appellate judges said Jenkins should be released from prison.

Joseph Cerezo couldn't sleep for three days.

A couple weeks later, he and his wife sat at their kitchen table surrounded by photographs of their son.

Penny Cerezo wept.

"It's like a nightmare, you know, reliving this," she said.

They spouted angry words about prosecutorial incompetence and a violent man who would be back on the streets.

Three days later, the Attorney General's Office filed a motion to have its appellate argument reheard. Jenkins would stay in prison for the time being.

Dawson, who had left the State Attorney's Office to open her own law practice, pitched in on the appeal. She had seen her own family struggle after a drunken driver killed her older brother, so she tried not to take the Cerezos' criticisms personally.

"I know there's no pain worse than losing your child," she said. "I understand what it does to a family. They have to have someone to blame, and that will be me and Mr. Jenkins."

- - -

In November, the appellate court denied the state's motion for rehearing. The Attorney General's Office petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to hear the case.

On Jan. 4, Jenkins left prison. On Jan. 30, the state Supreme Court ruled it did not have jurisdiction.

Jenkins now lives in Plant City, prison records show. Attempts to reach him for this story were unsuccessful. The Cerezos have not seen him since the trial.

Timothy Freeland, the assistant attorney general who wrote the appeal, said prosecutor Dawson did the best she could with the evidence she had.

Bryan Cerezo's parents will never agree.

Now they want their other sons to become lawyers.

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 11, 2007, 22:51:05]