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News footage of Samuele Jenkins (left) and Jessica Ivey (right) in court (WSOC).
A North Carolina couple appeared in court after pleading guilty to charges relating to the fatal car crash that killed their son — and the prosecutor reportedly asked the judge for mercy.
Samuele Jenkins, 31, and Jessica Ivey, 30, are the parents of six children — including 7-year-old Legend, who was killed while crossing a busy road in Gastonia on May 27. After an investigation into the boy”s death, police charged both of them with felony involuntary manslaughter, felony child neglect, and misdemeanor child neglect. According to the Gastonia Police Department, Jenkins and Ivey allowed Legend and their 10-year-old son cross a street “unsupervised” to pick up food at a Subway location.
During their sentencing hearing, which was covered by local ABC affiliate WSOC, prosecutor Joshua Warner said that Legend was struck by a 76-year-old driver in a Jeep Cherokee after his brother attempted to pull him out of the way.
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Details about the day Legend was killed were shared in court, including from Chuck Lifford, the defense attorney representing Jenkins. WSOC reported that he told the court that it was his idea to send Legend and the 10-year-old son to Subway to pick up a food order, even though Ivey “was opposed to it.”
Jenkins believed that he could “control things via cell.” According to prosecutors, surveillance video from the parking lot of the Subway restaurant showed the 10-year-old boy on the phone while Legend carried a large bag containing the food orders.
Ivey was also seen on a security camera nearby, prosecutors said, exiting a Food Lion grocery store. She had claimed during an interview with WSOC the day after the incident that she had spoken to both her sons, saying that they insisted on walking home by themselves.
Warner said, “That exchange never happened.” There was no communication between Ivey and her sons before they made their fateful journey across West Hudson Boulevard.
Despite the prosecutors’ charges against both parents, Warner told the court, “I stand here with a heavy heart and can’t image the grief they are experiencing.” After explaining that the 10-year-old boy witnessed his brother’s death after trying to pull him out of the way of the vehicle at the last second, Warner added, “Those children need their parents.”
The driver who hit Legend was not charged and cooperated with the investigation.
District Attorney Travis Page went even further, stating, “There is no prison or punishment worse than a parent living with the knowledge their decision-making and their actions caused the harm of their own child. These parents do not deserve prison—they need mercy, they need grace, and they need a community to support them and other struggling parents in hopes that a tragedy such as this will never happen again.”
Jenkins and Ivey were each given a suspended sentence of 19 to 32 months plus three years of probation after pleading guilty to negligent child abuse. In court, Jenkins told the court, “All I got to say is, long live Legend.”
