Jenkins found guilty of Woodbridge murder

By Amanda Stewart

Published: March 26, 2008

The shooting death of Gordon Harris was a “cold-blooded and calculated murder,“ prosecutors told a jury in Prince William Circuit Court on Wednesday.

“What is not at issue in this case is that Gordon Harris was murdered on September 19, 2006,“ Assis-tant Commonwealth’s Attorney Brendan McConnell said in his closing argument. “It was a brazen, daylight murder.“

What was left for jurors to decide, McConnell said, was who did the shooting.

After deliberating for close to four hours Wednesday afternoon, the jury convicted Walter Douglas Jenkins, 32, of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony for Harris’s death.

About 15 people saw a gunman, wearing all black clothes, a hooded sweatshirt and and a mask shoot Harris, 49, several times at close range at around 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 19, near the intersection of Featherstone Road and Farm Creek Drive, according to court testimony given during the three-day trial.

No one could see the shooter’s face.

During the trial, jurors heard testimony from two eyewitnesses who saw Jenkins acting suspiciously within two miles of the scene of the crime shortly after the shooting.

Jurors heard from Simo Holloway, who was sitting in his car, about 20 to 30 yards from the scene of the shooting when it happened. When the shooter fled on foot, Holloway drove after him.

Holloway lost the shooter when he ran behind a row of town houses, so he drove to where he knew the shooter would have to come out, he said.

There he saw Jenkins, getting into a yellow car.

Jurors also heard testimony from James Cassidy, who was standing outside of his home on Melbourne Avenue when he saw that same yellow car speed down the dead end street, he said. Cassidy said he saw the driver run into Ma-rumsco Acre Lake Park carrying a black bag and then exit the park, without the bag.

Another witness, an inmate at the Prince William-Manasas regional jail who prosecutors asked not be named, said Jenkins told him that he shot Harris and that he dressed in all black and parked in a town house community a few blocks away so that he could get away.

Police found gunshot residue on Jenkins’ hands and in his car. They also found a black plastic bag in Marum-sco Acre Lake Park that contained clothing that tested positive for Jenkins’ DNA.

On Wednesday, the last day of the trial, Jenkins took the stand and told jurors his version of the day’s events.

He said that in was in the Featherstone Road area around 6:40 a.m. that morning, looking for work.

Finding none, he decided to go back home to Washington, D.C. He said he was trying to get around traffic when he got lost and ended up on Melbourne Avenue, in front of Marumsco Acre Lake Park.

He pulled up to the park, and looked for a map he kept in his car, he said.

Then he saw the black bag containing clothes that he said were not his.

“It was trash. I didn’t want it anymore,“ Jenkins said.

So he threw the bag into the park.

“I am guilty of littering,“ he said.

Jenkins said he then got back in his car and left.

He was stopped by police and arrested for Harris’ murder a few minutes later.

Defense attorney Olaun Simmons argued that there was no evidence that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Jenkins was the shooter.

“Suspicion or probability of guilt is not sufficient evidence,“ Simmons said in his closing argument. “Being suspicious of a man walking in the woods is not sufficient evidence.“

Simmons said police and prosecutors relied too heavily on the eyewitnesses’ suspicions and “charged an innocent man.“

He said the other evidence was also not sufficient to prove Jenkins’ guilt. The clothes found in the park were not the same clothes that witnesses saw the shooter wear, Simmons said. And the gunshot residue found on Jen-kins’ hands and car could have been transferred from other sources, he said.

In his closing argument, Simmons also questioned the credibility of the inmate who testified against Jenkins. He said that the inmate was lying in the hopes that the he would get leniency in his pending charges.

The second phase of the trial, in which jurors will recommend a sentence, begins today.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.