Judge, Calling Killer ‘Sinister,’ Imposes 20 Years

David Scott Harrison, characterized by the judge and others as “wicked,” “sinister,” “manipulative” and “devoid of any conscience,” was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years to life in prison for killing his ex-wife shortly after she won the California Lottery.

Moreover, Vista Superior Court Judge David B. Moon ordered Harrison, 33, to serve the term after he completes his current, 20-year federal prison sentence for arson and bombing.

Harrison, who smiled occasionally during the all-day proceedings, told the judge he had nothing to say for himself and smiled broadly as he was escorted out of the courtroom in leg shackles.

Ann Harrison, 31, was found dead in her San Marcos home Feb. 17, 1988--just a month after she and her new husband, Gary Jenkins, had won $727,000 in the lottery. She had been strangled, and her throat cut so deeply that she was nearly decapitated.

Moon acknowledged on Wednesday that, from a forensics point of view, “This was the perfect crime. There was nothing found at the scene to help the investigating detectives learn who did it.”

The murder prosecution was based virtually exclusively on circumstantial evidence, including Harrison’s professions to friends that he wanted his ex-wife dead, because several books detailing how to commit “perfect murders” were found in his possession and because Harrison could not successfully account for a 78-minute period at the time that another witness testified he heard Ann Jenkins arguing with a man in front of her home about child custody.

Ann Jenkins had once been Harrison’s San Dieguito High School sweetheart. They were married for five years, divorcing in 1985 and sparking a bitter child-custody battle.

Before the murder, Harrison admitted, he waged an intense campaign of harassment against her and her family members--including buying an advertisement in a swinger’s magazine under the name of her father, Harry Wanket, soliciting gay lovers. The ad generated more than 300 letters and phone calls to his home.

Wednesday’s sentencing culminated a two-year-long prosecution by Asst. U.S. Atty. Larry Burns.

Harrison earlier pleaded guilty to bombing a van owned by Gary Jenkins’ first wife and to setting fire to a yacht owned by the parents of a gay lover who spurned Harrison, an acknowledged bisexual.

For each of those convictions, Harrison was given the maximum possible sentences: consecutive 10-year prison terms at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan.

In arguing to Moon that Harrison’s murder sentence should run after the current prison terms are completed, versus concurrently, Burns said:

“I submit to you that, if you sit for another 20 years (as a judge), you won’t see a person who is as wicked, as sinister, and as devoid of any conscience as this defendant. The proper place for him is prison for a long, long time to come.”

Added Burns of the murder, “This was not aberrational conduct. It wasn’t a one-time thing. He has made life miserable for a number of people for many, many years.”

Even a psychologist retained by the defense to evaluate Harrison concluded in his report to the court:

“Mr. Harrison did not start off in life as a vengeful, arrogant and insensitive human being with a penchant for getting even with his adversaries for harms he suffered--real or perceived. Yet . . . these traits would seem to fairly characterize his behaviors as an adult during the past several years.”

A probation report prepared for Wednesday’s sentencing read, in part:

“Mr. Harrison is truly a very cunning and diabolical individual. Although he has shown no remorse for this offense and has not admitted guilt in this matter, he has worked diligently and relentlessly in the past at truly making other people’s lives miserable.”

Moon said he was unable to give any credence to more than a dozen character reference letters written on Harrison’s behalf by friends.

“I wonder if I sat (in judgment) on the same fellow they’re talking about,” said Moon, who heard the case after Harrison and his Orange County attorney, Alan May, waived a jury. “The fellow they describe is a peaceful, honest, God-fearing, family man who has great affection for his children. Well, that is not the fellow that I saw being tried here in court.”

Moon rejected a morning-long pleading by May that he overturn his own guilty verdict--a ruling he issued almost immediately from the bench after the close of the trial in March. He also said he would not reduce the verdict to second-degree murder or manslaughter.

“I am now and was at the time satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Harrison is the person who killed Ann Jenkins,” Moon said.

The judge said Wednesday that he had no problem crystallizing Harrison’s motive to kill his former wife.

The motive was not “so much to get custody of the (couple’s two) kids, although that may have been part of it,” Moon said. “The motive was something more sinister. Mr. Harrison is a manipulative person. He wanted to control Ann Jenkins’ life. That’s really what this case is all about.

“When she hit the (lottery) jackpot, he couldn’t do it. He knows that, right now, and I am satisfied and even more so now than at the end of the trial that Mr. Harrison is the one who killed Ann Jenkins.”

Moon continued:

“Why would a person do that? That’s the difficulty. Why a person would chose this kind of crime--not only strangle her but almost decapitate her with a knife? I don’t know why someone does that. . . . I’ve seen people who are convicted who actually do these crimes, and it’s terrible. They do it for various reasons. Anger, hate, love, greed,” and, waving his hands toward Harrison, “power.”

May argued that, given the severity of the previous federal prison terms--issued at a time when authorities were investigating Harrison for the murder of his ex-wife--his client should not have to serve back-to-back sentences with an additional 26-years-to-life term.

Burns countered that to do otherwise and to allow the murder sentence to run at the same time as the bombing and arson sentences, would be “rewarding (Harrison) for the commission of several serious crimes.

“Using reason and common sense,” said Burns, “there’s absolutely no basis for” concurrent terms.

“Here is a person who is a black belt in karate, an instructor in martial arts, has the ability to take someone down without a struggle, catching this woman obviously unaware in her house, getting her from behind,” the prosecutor said. “The absence of signs of a struggle suggests she didn’t have an opportunity to fight for her life.”

Moon agreed, and ordered the consecutive terms.

The judge also ordered Harrison to pay $10,000 in restitution to the state’s victim compensation fund. When May scoffed at the notion that his client could somehow pay off the fine--especially since he won’t be eligible for parole until he is in his 60s--Moon said court records indicate that Harrison owns property in San Diego.

May said afterward that he did not regret not having a jury trial for his client, adding, “There was never any doubt about the verdict. He couldn’t have been found innocent.”

Gary Jenkins, who has custody of Ann and David Harrison’s two children in addition to his and Ann’s own child, said he declined making a statement in court after hearing Moon’s own reflections on Harrison.

“There was nothing left to say,” he said.