DA blames South Side slaying on sloppy housekeeping

The prosecution says a jury should find Destiny Jenkins guilty of homicide because her sloppy housekeeping habits set in motion the events that led to Eddie Kimber’s death.

But Jenkins’ lawyer said his client didn’t pull the trigger and should be acquitted regardless of what led up to the fatal shooting.

Jenkins’ trial began Monday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court before Judge Elliot Howsie.

Jenkins is charged in the Sept. 16, 2024, shooting on Sharon Street in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes neighborhood.

Pittsburgh police were called to a home there just before 4:30 p.m. and found Kimber, who had been shot in his lower back, on an upstairs bedroom floor.

He died a short time later.

Police charged Jenkins, 24, and her boyfriend, Lee McGinnis, with homicide. McGinnis, 25, is scheduled for trial in November.

Assistant District Attorney Shreya Desai told the jury in her opening statement that Jenkins had been roommates with Kimber and his older brother for more than a year before the shooting.

Throughout that time, Desai said, there was often conflict because Jenkins would not clean up after herself, including leaving feces from her dog throughout the house.

“Cleanliness was the primary issue,” testified Jenkins Kimber, 29, the victim’s brother, who also lived there. “She wouldn’t clean up. It became a recurring thing.”

On Sept. 16, the roommates argued over the condition of the home again.

That afternoon, Jenkins Kimber said, he and his brother asked their roommate and her boyfriend to leave.

But the altercation turned physical, and Jenkins Kimber testified that as he was walking up the steps to the second floor, Jenkins attacked him, hitting him repeatedly on the head, causing him to fall.

In the middle of the attack, he continued, he heard three gunshots coming from the bottom of the steps.

“I heard the shot, pop, and my brother was down on the top of the steps,” Jenkins Kimber testified.

McGinnis fired twice at Jenkins Kimber, too, he testified, but missed.

Jenkins and McGinnis then fled the house.

They were found at a Sunoco gas station less than a mile away a short time later.

Police said Jenkins was carrying a hangun in a grocery bag with her at the time of her arrest.

The jury also heard testimony Monday that a fingerprint on the magazine of the gun matched McGinnis’s left pinky.

“It was the defendant’s actions that started this chain of events,” Desai told the jury. “The only logical verdict is guilty of all counts.”

But defense attorney Joe Otte began his opening by quoting from Jenkins Kimber’s interviews with police: “’Her boyfriend shot my brother.’

Jenkins Kimber also told police, “He tried to shoot me, too.”

Otte noted in his opening that the gunshot residue test performed on his client was negative, and that the only righteous verdict in the case is not guilty.

“It doesn’t matter who started it.”