Allissa Martin and Bradley Jenkins.Photo:Facebook
The newlywed bride documented her Las Vegas wedding at the Chapel at Luxor in 2019, writing on Instagram that she had “married my best friend.” Days later, Allissa Martin, 27, was dead, having fallen seven stories from a parking garage in St. Louis, Mo.
“During the recording, you can hear her yell for him to quit punching her face,” police allege in the court documents. Soon after, she dropped her phone. “Shortly after that, you hear her scream as she falls and you hear the thump of her body hitting the ground," the documents state.
Earlier that June weekend in 2019, the couple — then both corrections officers in Illinois — had watched the St. Louis Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium, where they got into a heated argument in front of a group of colleagues, Jenkins told police,according to CBS News.
Allissa Martin.Facebook
Allissa Martin and Bradley Jenkins.Facebook
The video was still recording on the seventh floor of the parking garage when police, who arrived minutes after the 911 call placed at 1:45 a.m. that Sunday, collected Allissa’s phone. From the beginning, police said, it cast doubt on the “several lies” Jenkins told them, according to the affidavit.
“He claimed he had never been on the rooftop with her, but the video shows them together on the rooftop right when the video began. He also claimed the argument never got physical, yet on the recording, you hear the argument being physical," the affidavit states.
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Although Jenkins was initially charged with third-degree domestic assault, a felony, a grand jury ultimately did not indict him, and the case against him was dropped in 2019, his lawyer, John Rogers tells PEOPLE. Then, in 2022 Jenkins was re-charged with the same felony, carrying a four-year sentence, Rogers said. Jenkins pleaded down to misdemeanor assault on Tuesday and was sentenced to probation in connection to his wife’s death.
Bradley Jenkins.St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department
“None of the evidence supported the fact that Bradley Jenkins had anything to do with the death of his wife,” Rogers tells PEOPLE, calling the probation fair, given the fact that Jenkins had no prior felony convictions. “Bradley and his wife were in a heated argument and were not thinking calmly. There was provocation on the part of both Bradley and Allissa. Bradley’s guilty plea simply dealt with shoving her in a public place prior to leaving Ballpark Village, and a guilty plea was completely appropriate given a thorough review of the evidence in its entirety.”
At the time of his wife’s death, Jenkins was a lieutenant for the Illinois Department of Corrections, Rogers said, noting that Jenkins has since resigned from the department and has a new occupation of which he was “not at liberty to discuss.”
If you suspect domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
