A Miami man who allegedly chased an unarmed burglar and shot him several times as he begged for his life is facing an attempted murder charge.
Corthoris Jamal Jenkins, 28, was playing video games Tuesday in the bedroom of his North-Miami Dade efficiency when a suspected burglar, Xavier West, stormed inside, the Miami Herald reported.
But instead of picking up the phone to call cops, Jenkins grabbed an assault-style rifle and shot West several times while West was on his knees after chasing him down a street, police and prosecutors said.
“He begins to what appears to be to beg for his life,” Miami-Dade Detective Iry Watson told a judge Wednesday.
“But the defendant takes the assault rifle and shoots him multiple times.”
Jenkins, who first told police he “blacked out” prior to the shooting, seemingly admitted to gunning down West during Wednesday’s hearing, the Herald reported.
“I didn’t shoot him while he was on the ground,” Jenkins told a judge. “I’m the victim, ma’am.”
Judge Mindy Glazer disagreed with that claim, according to the report.
“You’re the victim of a potential burglary, but you can’t just go around shooting people,” Glazer retorted.
Prosecutors also insisted that video shows Jenkins’ actions were premeditated — and Glazer backed up that assessment in court, the Herald reported.
“He had time for reflection as he’s pointing the gun as he’s begging on his knees,” the judge said. “That’s premeditation.”
West was recovering Wednesday at a hospital in Miami, the newspaper reported. An update on his condition was not immediately available early Friday.
“He’s still intubated from his injuries,” Watson said Wednesday.
It’s unclear if West and Jenkins had any connection prior to Tuesday’s attempted burglary, the newspaper reported.
Jenkins, who remains held without bond Friday on a charge of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, was found by cops walking away from the scene following the shooting and immediately turned over his weapon, according to a police report.
The case may be another legal test of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, the Herald reported.
The controversial law became a national talking point ahead of the 2013 acquittal of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford a year earlier.
But Zimmerman maintained he shot Martin in self-defense while fearing for his life during a physical confrontation as the teen walked home from a store while visiting his father.
Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, invoked a traditional self-defense argument at trial rather than the law that allows people to use deadly force instead of retreating if they believe their lives are in danger.
The high-profile acquittal sparked widespread protests, national debates on the use of force and the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement.