SMITHFIELD, N.C. (WNCN) – A Clayton man was found guilty in connection to a 25-year-old murder case this week.
On Monday, a Johnston County jury found Jonathan Lynn Jenkins of Clayton guilty of the murder of Elton Whitfield of Beulaville.
According to the Johnston County District Attorney's Office, Whitfield's family reported him missing to the Clayton Police Department on March 20, 1999. After searching for Whitfield for weeks, a civilian found a badly decomposed body later identified as Whitfield in a wooded area off Lake Myra Road in Wake County on April 22, 1999.
In April 2006, Jenkins pled guilty to the October 1998 murder of Richard Vestal in Clayton and received an active prison sentence. Prosecutors said DNA evidence linked Jenkins to a mask that was left at the scene of the Vestal homicide. After he was released from prison, the Johnston County Sheriff's Office named Jenkins as a suspect in a human trafficking case.
On Jan. 19, 2016, Lieutenant Donald Pate arrested Jenkins and charged him with human trafficking, sexual servitude and possession of a firearm by a felon.
"Jenkins immediately made requests to speak to Pat about the human trafficking charges and offered to give him information about a 'body,'" a news release from the Johnston County District Attorney's Office said.
One day later, Jenkins confessed to murdering Whitfield by strangling him and then dumping his body in the woods, prosecutors said. Jenkins told police he killed the victim "because Whitfield was also involved in the Vestal murder and was on the verge of going to the police to confess in March of 1999," according to the press release.
"Jenkins decided Whitfield 'had to die' to prevent him for implicating Jenkins in the Vestal murder," the press release added.
On Aug. 4, 2021, Jenkins was convicted of sex trafficking in federal court and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. After two weeks of trial that involved many witnesses, Jenkins was convicted of the first-degree murder of Whitfield on Monday. He was sentenced to the mandatory prison term of life without the possibility of parole.
"The Johnston County District Attorney's Office is grateful to the Clayton Police Department and Detective Jason Linder for their unwavering commitment to solving this 25-year-old homicide case," Senior Assistant District Attorney Jason Waller said in a released statement. "We also appreciate Johnston County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Don Pate's investigation into the human trafficking case which ultimately led to Jenkin's confession to the Elton Whitfield murder. The jurors took their job very seriously, and their verdict will finally put an end to the cycle of violence that Jenkins inflicted upon multiple victims in Johnston County since 1999."