Man Gets 80 Years in Prison for Killing of Pregnant Girlfriend Who Refused Abortion; He Wanted Relationship With Other Woman

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, August 03, 2015

A 24-year-old man who was convicted of hiring a hit man to kill his pregnant girlfriend because she refused to abort their unborn child so he could "stay with … his other girlfriend," was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the crime last Thursday, but he still maintains that he is innocent.

The man, Carlton "C.J." Bryan, who according to an Associated Press report was convicted in May of conspiracy to commit murder and being an accessory to murder, was sentenced in Hartford Superior Court.

In a Christian Post report in 2013, court documents said Bryan told his friend, Matthew Allen Hall-Davis, that his now deceased pregnant girlfriend, Shamari Jenkins, 20, "was trying to ruin his life and he wanted her killed."

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Prosecutors noted in the AP report that Bryan hired his friend Hall-Davis to kill Jenkins, who was about four-months pregnant when she was shot.

At the time of the arrest, Hall-Davis, who was sentenced to 70 years in prison for his role in the crime, told police: "Carlton Bryan did not want to have the baby with Shamari Jenkins. … Shamari initially agreed to have an abortion but changed her mind and she was now four months pregnant."

According to Hall-Davis, Bryan didn't want the baby because he "wanted to stay with … his other girlfriend."

An apparently proud and very pregnant Jenkins posted a photo of her baby bump on Facebook on April 28, 2013. A day later on April 29, she was dead. Jenkins was fatally shot in the chest as she sat at the wheel of her Honda Accord in front of 137 Magnolia St. in Hartford's North End while Bryan sat next to her in the front passenger seat. The unborn child also died.

Prosecutors argued in court that Bryan orchestrated a plan to have Jenkins murdered when he could not convince her to get an abortion. Bryan's lawyer, Salvatore Bonanno, told the AP, however, that his client has always maintained his innocence in his girlfriend's death and he planned to appeal the sentence.

"He has always asserted his innocence and continues to assert his innocence," Bonanno told the AP in a phone interview after the sentencing. "Hopefully, the appellate court upon review will reverse the decision of the jury."

Contrary to the testimony of the hit man, explained Bonanno, Bryan was planning to move in with Jenkins and was looking forward to the birth of his child. He also argued that it didn't make sense that Bryan was in the car with his girlfriend when she was shot.

"My question to the jury was 'who does that?'" said Bonanno. "What if the guy misses and hits you?"