West Precinct Detectives Arrest Man for Maxon Avenue Triple Homicide
11/9/2012
November 9, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Convicted felon Lorenzo Kelvin Jenkins this afternoon is being charged with
three counts of criminal homicide for the October 22nd stabbing
deaths of three members of the Sullivan family at their 5500 Maxon Avenue
property.
Jenkins, 39, who received two six-year suspended sentences just this past June
for aggravated burglary and felony theft in separate incidents, was taken into
custody today at the Sumner County Jail.
“West Precinct detectives have worked tirelessly for nearly three weeks
pursuing leads in their efforts to determine who was responsible for this
tremendously violent crime,” Chief Steve Anderson said. “This was a very
difficult crime scene to see and work, and I am grateful to officers from
several components and the staff of our Identification Division for all that
they did to move this investigation forward.”
Detectives recently identified Jenkins as among those who needed to be
interviewed as part of the continuing investigation. The focus on Jenkins
intensified significantly on Tuesday as the result of days of meticulous
on-scene evidence processing by Metro Police experts. Certain items of
collected evidence were submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
crime laboratory for scientific testing. Analysis of that evidence led to
Jenkins being considered a strong suspect. On Tuesday evening, West
Precinct detectives took Jenkins into custody as he left his mother’s home on
22nd Avenue North to serve a search warrant that mandated he give a
DNA sample. A search warrant was also executed at his 1037 Centerpoint
Road home in Hendersonville. While Jenkins refused to answer questions
about the triple homicide case Tuesday night, Hendersonville Police located
evidence in Jenkins’ residence linking him to a residential burglary that
occurred on November 5th. He was charged in Sumner County with
aggravated burglary and felony theft. Jenkins’ bond on the Sumner County
charges was set at $225,000.
West Precinct detectives submitted the DNA sample obtained by search warrant to
the TBI crime laboratory Wednesday morning. The murder warrants were
issued as a result of that analysis.
Patrick Sullivan, 56, his wife, Deborah Sullivan, 48, and their daughter, Wendy
Sullivan, 26, are believed to have been attacked in the late morning hours of
October 22nd. The Sullivan’s 28-year-old daughter found her
mother and sister dead inside the house early that afternoon. Responding
officers found Patrick Sullivan dead inside a detached building behind the
house.
The motive for the murders is believed to be drug related. The
investigation revealed that the Sullivans sold pills and marijuana from the
Maxon Avenue residence.
In addition to his 2012 convictions, Jenkins was also convicted of robbery in
January 2004 for grabbing a purse from a woman’s arm at 10th Avenue
North & Charlotte Avenue as she walked from her workplace to her car.
Jenkins confessed, saying that he took the purse because he needed money for
drugs. He received a five-year suspended sentence in that case.
The investigation into this triple homicide case is continuing.
Unanswered questions regarding the circumstances remain. Anyone in the
community with information about this case, or about Lorenzo Jenkins, his
affiliations, or his activities on October 22nd, is urged to contact
West Precinct Investigations at 862-7385 or Crime Stoppers at 74-CRIME.
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