Man Accused of Killing Ex-Wife Waives Jury Trial; Judge Will Rule

David Scott Harrison, suspected of murdering his ex-wife, waived a jury trial Monday and instead will allow Vista Superior Court Judge David B. Moon Jr. to reach his own verdict. The slaying occurred in February, 1988, a month after the victim and her new husband won $727,000 in the California Lottery.

Defense attorney Alan May said his client decided to put his case to a judge because a jury would be tainted by Harrison’s criminal record and bad character--elements that, May says, the judge will be better able to segregate from the facts of the case.

Harrison, 33, who has already been sentenced in federal court for a car bombing, arson and an insurance fraud scheme, is charged in the killing of Anne Jenkins, who was found dead in her San Marcos home, the victim of strangulation and a slashed throat.

The district attorney’s office charges that Harrison killed his ex-wife after he realized that, given her state lottery winnings, she could better finance her court battle against Harrison over the couple’s protracted child custody and visitation litigation.

Harrison, who testified on his own behalf during his preliminary hearing and is expected to take the stand again, already admitted that he conducted a nearly three-year harassment campaign against Anne Jenkins, her husband, Gary, and her father, Harry Wanket. Harrison said he was angry at the three for the continuing court battle over the custody and visitation of the two children.

But May says--and prosecutor Larry Burns acknowledges--that there is no forensic evidence or eyewitness that places Harrison at the murder scene two years ago, and that the prosecution is relying on circumstantial evidence and Harrison’s admitted bad feelings toward Anne Jenkins.

“There’s not a whole lot of dispute in the actual facts of the case,” May said. “But judges have dealt with characters with seedier backgrounds than my client, and are not influenced by public opinion, background (of defendants) or passion.

“We have a case so cluttered with prior acts and bad character--but with no evidence--it will take a person with a strong commitment to apply the law. When you’re innocent and the facts are on your side, I just pray the judge has the courage to do what he has to do.”

Burns, an assistant U.S. attorney who is prosecuting the case on behalf of the district attorney’s office because of his previous prosecutions of Harrison, said he doesn’t object to Moon serving as both judge and jury.

“We’ll put on the same case I planned to put before a jury,” he said. “And now I don’t have to worry about one or two jurors hanging up on the case. The family (of Anne Jenkins) considers this to be an advantage, that once and for all this case will be settled.”

Burns added that May “has tried more than 50 murder cases, and he knows what he’s doing.”

May’s last murder defense--in a nonjury trial--ended with an acquittal in December in Orange County.

The Harrison trial will begin at 1:40 p.m. today with both sides giving opening statements to Moon. The case is expected to last 10 days.

Harrison already has been sentenced to a 20-year federal prison term because of his earlier guilty pleas to arson, insurance fraud and bombing, in which he admitted to bombing the van owned by Gary Jenkins’ first wife, Pamela Jenkins of Vista, in order to cast suspicion on Gary Jenkins.

Harrison has admitted he also changed the Jenkins’ telephone number and both the Jenkinses’ and Wanket’s mailing addresses, as well as buying an advertisement in a sex magazine under his father-in-law’s name in which he solicited homosexual lovers.

Anne Jenkins, 30, was found dead in her home by her husband after she was strangled and her throat was slit. There were no signs of a struggle, and nothing was taken from the house.