WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — After a week of emotional testimony, a jury is now left to decide if a Lantana man hired someone to kill his wife for money.
Both the state and defense delivered their closing arguments Thursday in the Euri Jenkins murder case. Jenkins faces life in prison if convicted.
"He was there to take one thing only, and that was to snatch the life of Makeva Jenkins," prosecutor Alexcia Cox told jurors Thursday.
In their closing arguments, state prosecutors focused on proving that Jenkins hired a hit man to murder his pregnant wife, Makeva Jenkins, 33.
"He was there to complete the job that the defendant asked him to do," Cox said. "And he either received $1,500 or $10,000, and he was promised additional money."
Although Jenkins wasn't the one who pulled the trigger, the state contended he was the sole mastermind behind the shooting so that he could collect his wife's life insurance money.
"Twenty-eight days before her death, the one policy was changed and he assumed — he assumed — that the second policy had been changed also," Cox said.
In June 2017, Makeva Jenkins was shot and killed while sleeping at her home near Lantana.
The state's key witnesses, confessed gunman Joevan Joseph and alleged middleman Dametri Dale, testified against Jenkins to avoid life sentences.
"This case is about lies and liars, plain and simple," defense attorney Gregg Lerman said.
During the defense's closing arguments, Jenkins' attorney poked holes in Joseph's and Dale's stories and reminded the jury they both have a history of lying under oath.
Lerman argued Jenkins didn't have anything to do with his wife's death and the state failed to prove otherwise.
"It is the burden of the government to provide you with truthful, honest, sworn testimony," Lerman said.
Jurors deliberated for about two hours Thursday and decided to return at 9 a.m. Friday to resume deliberations.
