Poplar Bluff man pleads guilty to killing father with baseball bat

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- A Poplar Bluff, Missouri, man pleaded guilty earlier this week to killing his father by striking him with a baseball bat.

Matthew Dale Jenkins, 29, pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder, Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Barbour said.

After accepting Jenkins' plea, Presiding Circuit Judge Fred Copeland set sentencing for 1 p.m. Oct. 27.

"I'm going to recommend 20 years" at sentencing, said Barbour, who had agreed to a 20-year cap as part of plea negotiations.

Barbour also agreed to dismiss Jenkins' remaining charges, felony first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action.

One of the circumstances influencing Barbour's decision, he said, was the death of Jenkins' mother, who was the assault victim in the case.

Vicki M. Jenkins, who had been injured critically, died Oct. 9.

The then-60-year-old woman and her husband, Carl Don Jenkins, had suffered massive head trauma after each was beaten in the head with an aluminum baseball bat inside their Wilson Street 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.

Matthew Jenkins, whose parents recently had kicked him out of the house, was upset over their alleged criticism of how he was living, "and he just snapped," according to earlier testimony by deputy chief Jeff Rolland.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, Mo.