by peter e. bortner
State prison inmate Ronnie Jenkins interrupted his trial enough to get thrown out of the courtroom on Wednesday but not enough to prevent a Schuylkill County jury of convicting him of assaulting a corrections officer in August 2011.
"All right, out, out!" Judge John E. Domalakes said in ordering Jenkins, 32, of Philadelphia, ejected from the courtroom following repeated interruptions of Assistant District Attorney Michael A. O'Pake's closing argument. Sheriff's deputies promptly handcuffed Jenkins and removed him from the courtroom.
Domalakes allowed Jenkins to return to the courtroom after O'Pake finished, and the manacled defendant did not react when the jury of seven women and five men found him guilty of aggravated assault, aggravated harassment by prisoner and simple assault.
Domalakes, who presided over Jenkins' one-day trial, ordered preparation of a presentence investigation and scheduled Jenkins' sentencing for 11:15 a.m. Dec. 12. Jenkins was taken back to State Correctional Institution/Graterford in Montgomery County, where he is serving a sentence from Philadelphia, pending sentencing.
"I commend the jury for their thoughtful deliberation," O'Pake said. "The vile and disgusting act of the defendant will be punished accordingly."
Jenkins' "vile and disgusting act" was throwing fecal matter at Sgt. Nathan Wynder on Aug. 22, 2011, at SCI/Mahanoy, according to state police at Frackville.
Assistant Public Defender Kent D. Watkins, Jenkins' lawyer, asked the jury in his closing argument to acquit his client, saying prosecutors were trying to get him convicted solely because he is a prisoner.
"Does he have the intent to do this?" Watkins asked. "Could there be more to this than meets the eye?"
However, O'Pake, in spite of several interruptions by Jenkins, successfully argued that the evidence proved his case.
"He gets splashed with the material," O'Pake said of Wynder. "An expert testified ... it was fecal."
Eventually, Jenkins' interruptions proved to be too much for Domalakes to tolerate.
"You waived your right to be here by repeatedly disrupting the proceeding," Domalakes told Jenkins as the deputies led the defendant from the courtroom.
In his original case, Jenkins pleaded guilty on July 23, 2009, in Philadelphia County Court to aggravated assault and possessing instrument of crime, with prosecutors dropping charges of unlawful restraint, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. At that time, Judge Lillian Ransom sentenced Jenkins to serve three to six years in a state correctional institution.
Philadelphia police charged Jenkins with committing his assault Nov. 2, 2008.
Watkins declined to comment on Jenkins' case, while O'Pake said it is a rare example of a prison matter that had to be handled outside the institution's walls.
"What can be handled internally is handled internally," O'Pake said. "When you have incidents of this magnitude, they have to be handled according to criminal law."Defendant: Ronnie Jenkins
Age: 32
Residence: Philadelphia
Crimes committed: Aggravated assault, aggravated harassment by prisoner and simple assault