by Kim Jarrett
More than 40 years after Kingston Springs, Tennessee motel maid Catherine Jean Jenkins was stabbed to death, Anthony Darrell Hines was executed for her murder.
Jenkins’ son, Dennis Jenkins, graphically described how his mother died in a news conference held after Thursday’s execution, saying her only defense was a plastic spray bottle.
He said Hines “superficially cut her, tortured her,” stabbed her 13 times — one wound passing completely through her body — and then sexually assaulted her with the same knife. Jenkins added that the defense wounds on her arms and hands required her body to be prepared with long sleeves and gloves, and that Hines placed a stolen $20 bill under her watchband before taking her car and fleeing.
“And for those hot-shot attorneys out there that are trying to make a name for yourselves by defending these cold-blooded murderers, I don’t understand your mentality,” Dennis Jenkins said in the news conference broadcast on WSMV. “If it happened to one of your loved ones, whether you are just an outsider or an attorney, I just wonder how you would feel about that low-life animal that took that life.”
“Yes, I hope he did suffer. I hope he felt severe pain because what he did to my mother is nothing what he may have just gone through,” he added.
Jenkins’ daughter, Melissa, said the family’s focus is on honoring her mother’s memory.
“We will always mourn the wonderful person my mother was, even as we continue living our lives,” Melissa Jenkins said. “While today does not bring closure, nor does it bring my mother back, it does finally bring justice.”
“After so many years, we are finally able to close this chapter of our lives and begin to heal. We respectfully ask for privacy as we navigate what lies ahead,” she said.
Hines attorneys attempted to stop Thursday’s execution using a failed May execution of Tony Carruthers.
A primary IV line was already inserted into Carruthers, but medical personnel could not find a required second line for a backup, according to a statement from the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
Hines was paralyzed on one side from a stroke and had other health issues that could have made inserting an IV line a problem, his attorneys said in their appeals.
Gov. Bill Lee and the U.S. Supreme Court did not intervene in Hines’ execution.
Hines was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 10:43 a.m., said Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada.
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Kim Jarrett is an associate editor at The Center Square. Christina Botteri is the Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow her on X at @christinakb.
