Suspect in Fatal Stabbing Turns Himself In

A 28-year-old man suspected of fatally stabbing another man during an altercation earlier this week turned himself in to the police, detectives said Friday.

Larry Alan Jenkins of Westminster, who was still recovering from a self-inflicted knife wound, walked up to the front counter of the Westminster police station about 6 p.m. Thursday and surrendered, investigators said. He was booked into Orange County Jail and is being held without bail on suspicion of murder, Det. Mike Proctor said.

Police had learned through informants early Thursday about Jenkins’ alleged connection to the slaying, which happened about midnight the previous day. Mark Tomsen, 27, of Westminster, was standing on a corner at Goldenwest Street and Fenway Drive apparently waiting for his girlfriend when a man approached him and repeatedly slashed him with a knife, police said.

After the attack, Tomsen trudged back to his parents’ home about 100 yards away and was taken to UCI Medical Center, where he died.

Investigators on Thursday served search warrants at “places where [Jenkins] had frequented or had been and made it clear to these contacts and individuals harboring him . . . that it would be a very good idea for him to turn himself in,” Proctor said.

Shortly afterward, Jenkins called the Crossroads Community Church, where Tomsen’s father, Roy Tomsen, had been a clergyman, and spoke to a deacon there, Proctor said. The deacon then called Tomsen’s father, who informed detectives that Jenkins “was en route to turn himself in,” Proctor said.

Jenkins pleaded guilty in 1994 to stealing more than $400 worth of copper piping from a Westminster plumbing storage yard and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years of probation, according to court documents.

In October 1995, he failed to report to a probation officer and a bench warrant was issued for him.

Tomsen was remembered by relatives as a warmhearted “free spirit” who was trying to get his life back together and had gotten a job working for a construction company. Court records showed Tomsen was convicted of robbing a pizza delivery driver in 1991 and burglary in 1989.

Police said Tomsen might have known Jenkins, but declined to reveal specifics of the relationship and further details of the attack, including a motive. A knife believed to have been used in the slaying was recovered, detectives said.

“[Jenkins] is claiming self-defense,” Police Sgt. Derek Martin said.