ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The state has filed an intent to seek the death penalty for the charges of murder in the first-degree on a Bahamian man who is accused of beating a well-known St. Pete bartender and cook to death one night after both men left a bar.
Court documents say that video and audio recordings of the beating show that the attack lasted for an hour and 19 minutes while Kristoff King beat Scott Jenks. Jenks could be heard moaning, crying and pleading for his life.
Newly filed court documents say that the death penalty is being sought because the crime was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.
"The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification."
The court document also makes mention of King being previously convicted of another capital felony or violent crime in his native Bahamas but says they have limited information on that at this time.
Jenks' body was found early in the morning on Jan. 14 in a parking lot of the Northgate Center in St. Petersburg.
King was arrested and charged with the murder two days later in Alachua County after being pulled off of a greyhound bus.
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