Poplar Bluff man gets 20 years for beating father to death with bat

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Presiding Circuit Judge Fred Copeland followed the state's recommendation in sentencing a Poplar Bluff, Missouri, man Tuesday afternoon to 20 years in prison for beating his father to death with a baseball bat in 2013.

Matthew Dale Jenkins' lawyer had been asking for a sentence of 10 or 15 years, Butler County, Missouri, Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Barbour said.

The 29-year-old pleaded guilty in September to felony second-degree murder in connection with the death of Carl Don Jenkins.

The elder Jenkins, along with his then 60-year-old wife, Vicki Jenkins, had suffered massive head trauma after each was beaten with an aluminum baseball bat inside their home Jan. 15, 2013.

Carl Jenkins died 15 days later at Saint Louis University Hospital after family members removed him from life support.

An autopsy found the 56-year-old had suffered "a blunt trauma injury, with brain damage, that resulted in brain death," according to Butler County Deputy Coroner Mike Elliott's earlier testimony at Matthew Jenkins' preliminary hearing.

Barbour said the victims' family members were present for Jenkins' sentencing but did not address the court.

Authorities reportedly learned of the attack about 12:30 p.m. Jan. 15, 2013, when Matthew Jenkins, the couple's eldest son, called 911 and reported to the Poplar Bluff Police Department he had arrived home to find his parents had been "severely assaulted."

The Butler County/Poplar Bluff Major Case Squad was activated to investigate the couple's assault.

During a subsequent interview, the younger Jenkins reported "he had an argument with his mother and father, and during the course of the argument, he struck Carl Jenkins in the head approximately four times with an aluminum bat," according to then Missouri State Highway Patrol Cpl. Jeff Johnson's probable-cause statement.

Matthew Jenkins also admitted to striking his mother in the head about two times with the bat, Johnson said. After hitting his parents, Matthew Jenkins "attempted to render first aid, and then he called 911," Johnson said.

Matthew Jenkins, whose parents recently had kicked him out of the house, was upset over his parents' alleged criticism for "how he was living his life," deputy police chief Jeff Rolland said. "He wasn't trying to get a job. He wasn't being an appropriate father to his daughter, and the criticism had gone on over several years, and he just snapped."

In a hospital interview, Vicki Jenkins told a Highway Patrol investigator her son had hit her, Rolland said. She died Oct. 9, 2014.