On a January night, 24-year-old Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Calvin Jenks was on duty in Tipton County. He was a married man who had been with the highway patrol for almost three years, having transferred to Tipton County to be closer to his wife, a medical student. Friends and colleagues knew him as someone who wanted to make a difference, following in the footsteps of his step-grandfather.
On the night of January 6, 2007, his life was cut short during what began as a routine traffic stop on a rural road.
Trooper Jenks pulled over a vehicle for speeding on Highway 14. Inside the car were two teenagers from Texas, 17-year-old Alejandro Gauna and 19-year-old Orlando Garcia, who were transporting marijuana. After smelling marijuana, Jenks began to question the occupants. The entire encounter was captured on his patrol car's dashboard camera. As he leaned into the driver's side window to speak with Gauna, the trooper was shot twice at close range with a. 25-caliber pistol, once above the eye and once in the back of the head. His body was later discovered by two hunters next to his patrol car.
The two suspects fled the scene, but their freedom was short-lived. An extensive search was launched, and approximately 13 hours later, both Gauna and Garcia were apprehended in Nashville, about 200 miles from the crime scene. The investigation pieced together their movements, including a stop at a Walmart where Jenks's flashlight was later found in a dumpster.
Both young men faced the legal consequences of their actions. Orlando Garcia, the driver, went to trial and in December 2007 was convicted of facilitation of first-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to 19 years in prison. Alejandro Gauna, the passenger who fired the fatal shots, was tried as an adult. In May 2008, he was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence. He will not be eligible for release until 2062. Both were also federally charged in relation to the crime and received life sentences.
