COURTESY ST. LOUIS POLICE
Bradley Jenkins, blood still on his shirt, was found straddling his wife's body, police say.
With time running out, St. Louis prosecutors dropped a domestic assault charge against an Illinois corrections officer whose new wife fell to her death following a Cardinals game, according to a report.
Bradley Jenkins of Taylorville, Illinois, was arrested in June in the stomach-churning case. In court documents filed at the time, police said officers responded to a 911 call and found the 31-year-old straddling the body of 27-year-old Alissa Martin on the ramp to the garage. He was bloody and seemed agitated, police said.
Jenkins was initially charged with third-degree domestic assault, but police wrote in a probable cause statement that they were awaiting an autopsy as they weighed whether to seeks charges against him in Martin's death.
Now, three months after the arrest, not only have no other charges been filed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that prosecutors are dismissing the domestic assault charge. A spokeswoman for the Circuit Attorney told the paper they were still awaiting evidence from police and the medical examiner but had reached the end of the 90-day window to secure an indictment.
Prosecutors plan to refile once that evidence is available, according to the report.
The details initially described by police were shocking. During the early investigation, detectives discovered Martin's cell phone on the seventh floor of the parking garage. It was on and still recording video. When police played it back, they uncovered footage of Martin arguing with Jenkins.
Martin, who was also a corrections officer, can reportedly be heard telling Jenkins to stop punching her in the face before she dropped the phone. The recording then captures her scream as she fell, followed, horrifically, by the sound of her hitting the ground, police said.
Jenkins told multiple lies when questioned, claiming he had never even been on the top of the parking garage, police said.
He and Martin had been married less than two weeks before in Las Vegas.
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