Even as he received a 30-year sentence for manslaughter, a man who admitted to killing his girlfriend insisted Monday that he mistook her for an intruder breaking into the couple’s Baton Rouge apartment.
But, as District Judge Tarvald Smith handed down the sentence five days after Demaris Quentall Jenks pleaded guilty to manslaughter, he and others in the courtroom seemed skeptical of his claims.
“The situation that happened was a pure accident,” Jenks told the judge.
“You want to go to trial?” Smith asked. “You’re saying it was an accident; you’ve pled to manslaughter.”
“No,” Jenks said. “I believe in justice being served because a life was taken. But at the same time, it was an accident.”
Jenks, 26, pleaded guilty to shooting and killing 22-year-old Arnishika “NeNe” Baker, the mother of his child, during in October 2021 inside the Olive Square Apartments complex in the 1700 block of La Annie Drive.
Jenks told officers he shot Baker because “he thought she was a burglar,” investigators said in an arrest report. But the couple’s son witnessed the deadly encounter and told investigators that Jenks shot Baker while the two argued because the victim suspected him of seeing another woman, Assistant District Attorney Frank Breaux Jr. said.
Prosecutors said defensive wounds that medical examiners found on Baker’s body corroborated the 6-year-old child’s account, couching the killing as a deadly domestic violence incident.
Jenks was originally indicted for second-degree murder and faced a mandatory life sentence. During last week’s hearing, Breaux said prosecutors offered him the plea deal after discussing the case with the victim’s family and deciding to protect the child from having to testify against his father at trial.
“Demaris, you should thank your son along with the rest of us for even agreeing to accept this plea. But it had to be done in order to keep not just a child being a child, but to keep him from being further traumatized all over again,” the victim’s sister, Kayla Calvin, wrote in a victim impact letter.
“As much rage as I still have for you, I pray that one day God removes it,” Calvin added. “I will never — and I do mean never — forget the pain that you caused me and this entire family the day you took Ne away. I hope you have and serve the life you deserve because of what you did to my sister, which you and I both know she didn’t deserve.”
A victim’s advocate read a statement from other members of Baker’s family, who remembered her as a beloved sister, daughter, mother, and cousin and said her unexpected death ripped their tight-knit family apart.
“We will never understand or have any answers to why, but we will remain faithful to God in retaining our strength. We know nothing can bring her back, which is why it’s so important for justice to be served to the person responsible for her death.”
Breaux, the prosecutor, appeared to bristle with outrage during Monday’s hearing as he listened to Jenks reiterate his claim that the tragedy was unintentional.
Jenks said the shooting happened four days after the couple’s anniversary and they spent the entire month in a “very romantic” state with one another. Instead of arguing over infidelity in the relationship, he indicated they were planning a dinner date at Red Lobster the night of the shooting.
The defendant said his son told him Baker had left the apartment and he thought he was home alone with the boy. He told the judge he went to investigate a mysterious noise coming from the back bedroom and Baker popped out in the dark, unwittingly scaring him. He said he fired a single bullet in self-defense and didn’t realize it was his child’s mother until after he hit the light switch.
“I never meant to cause her any harm or any pain. If I could go back in time, I would’ve never bought the gun,” Jenks said. “I only bought a firearm to protect my family and the only reason I did what I did was because I thought I was protecting my family.”
Afterward, Smith stopped short of commenting on Jenks’ statement but applauded Baker’s loved ones, who sat in the courtroom dabbing away tears.
“This family needs to be commended for not putting a child up here to face you,” the judge told Jenks, pointing to the witness stand.
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