AMIR JENNINGS - 18 Months - Columbia SC

Mom of missing SC boy told cops she needed break

MEG KINNARD, Associated Press
Updated 12:04 p.m., Tuesday, August 28, 2012

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina mother on trial in the case of her missing son told police she needed a break from parenting.

Prosecutors on Tuesday played a lengthy interview with Zinah Jennings. In the tape, a police sergeant tells Jennings he knows parenting is stressful and understands that she needs time away from her son.

But Sgt. Arthur Thomas also says he needs to see the boy to ensure he's OK.

Jennings is on trial for unlawful conduct toward a child. Her son was 18 months old when he was last seen around Thanksgiving.

Jennings has said her son is safe but won't say where he is. Her attorney said Tuesday police don't have any evidence his client harmed her son.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Mom-of-missing-SC-boy-told-cops-she-needed-break-3819886.php#ixzz24sBU6JY0

Friend testifies that mom considered selling missing toddler

12:43 PM, Aug 29, 2012
Written by Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press

COLUMBIA — A friend has testified that the mother of a missing South Carolina toddler considered giving away or selling her son to alleviate the stress of parenting.

Christian Dickerson testified Wednesday that Zinah Jennings had planned her pregnancy but talked about throwing her son out a window or selling him.

Dickerson also said she saw Jennings kick her son, Amir, when the boy was just over a year old.

Jennings is on trial on a charge of illegal conduct toward a child. Police say she has told them misleading and false stories about where the boy is.

Amir was 18 months old when he was last seen around November. His mother is pregnant with a second child and she faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

In earlier testimony, Amir’s father says he wanted to play more of a role in his son’s life but the boy’s mother wouldn’t let him.

Roderick Mitchell testified Wednesday that Zinah Jennings moved out of their apartment after the boy was born in June 2010 and wouldn’t let him spent much time with Amir.

Mitchell said he was surprised when Zinah Jennings let him spend a day with their son last November.

The boy was 18 months old when he was last seen around Thanksgiving.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/viewart/20120829/NEWS/308290057/Friend-testifies-mom-considered-selling-missing-toddler

Friend: Mother kicked boy, wanted to give him away


Witness says defendant thought about tossing now-missing son out car window
08/30/2012


A few months before Columbia toddler Amir Jennings disappeared,
his mother told a friend she sometimes thought about selling him, giving
him away or throwing him out the window of a car, a witness testified
Wednesday.
“I thought she was just stressed out,” said Christian
Dickerson, 23, a friend of Zinah Jennings since their days at Hand
Middle School.
In early September last year, Dickerson testified,
Zinah Jennings came over to her house without Amir, who was in day care
at the time.

“She told me she thought about getting in a car and just keeping on
going,” Dickerson testified under questioning from assistant 5th
Judicial Circuit Solicitor Meghan Walker.
“She actually said something about giving him away,” Dickerson added.
Dickerson’s
testimony came on the second day of the trial of Zinah Jennings,
charged with unlawful conduct toward a child in the case of her missing
son, Amir. He was last seen Nov. 29, and Zinah Jennings has given
conflicting and false stories about his whereabouts, prosecutors say. He
was 18 months old when he went missing. She could get 10 years in
prison if found guilty.
Dickerson, one of 21 witnesses who have
testified so far for the prosecution, said Jennings had told her it was
just “overwhelming” to have to care for a young child.
Dickerson said she urged Jennings to remember that she was a mother now.
On
another occasion, also in early September, Zinah Jennings was visiting
Dickerson’s house with Amir, she testified, adding he was “kind of
bubbly, all he wanted to do was play.”
“She (Zinah Jennings) set
him on the floor and she kicked him and told him to go play,” Dickerson
testified. When Amir didn’t move, Zinah Jennings kicked him again,
Dickerson testified.
Other witnesses Wednesday underscored what
prosecutors describe as a marked lack of concern by Zinah Jennings for
Amir’s welfare.
Former S.C. Credit Union teller Kristen Knight,
testified that on Nov. 29 that Zinah Jennings – who was withdrawing
money – was so unaware of Amir’s presence in the bank that the toddler
actually almost ran outside through the Credit Union’s front double
doors. Moreover, Knight and another former teller, Ashleigh Burnett,
testified that on occasions when Zinah Jennings used the drive-in teller’s window, they could see that Amir was not buckled in to a safety seat.
Adrienne
Alston, 23, and her boyfriend, Troy Clark, testified that Zinah
Jennings last fall left Amir asleep in her car when she came in for a
visit.
Clark testified he was so concerned, he went outside to see
how Amir was and found the car’s window’s rolled up on a “kind of hot”
day. “I checked to see if he was still breathing,” Clark testified. Amir
was OK, he testified.
Jessica Thomas, a longtime friend of Zinah
Jennings, testified that Jennings forcefully squeezed Amir’s hand last
fall so hard he cried when she was trying to get him to say “Mamma.”
Jennings also hit her preschool nephew and cursed him, Thomas testified.
Columbia
police officer Eric Walker testified that when he stopped Zinah
Jennings for running a red light last fall, Amir was in the car’s front
seat and not in a legal child safety seat.
Jennings’ defense
attorney, Hemphill Pride, tried to blunt the worst of the testimony by
getting nearly all the witnesses to acknowledge that when they saw Amir,
he appeared happy, clean, well-groomed and well dressed.
Also
taking the stand Wednesday was Roderick Mitchell, 29, Amir’s biological
father. He testified that at first he saw his son frequently, but as
time went on, he and the child’s mother broke up and she kept him from
seeing Amir.
“Zinah wouldn’t let me have contact with him,” he said.
“Did you want to be a part of his life?” Walker asked him.
“Yes,” replied Mitchell, a chef at Columbia’s Hunter-Gatherer Brewery & Alehouse.
The
last time he saw Amir was Nov. 29, Mitchell testified, when he was
supposed to spend time with the boy because he had that day off. But
when he arrived to pick up Amir, Zinah said she had other plans for him.
“I gave him a hug and a kiss and left,” Mitchell testified.
Up until now, the prosecution has relied mostly on witnesses who knew
Zinah Jennings. But prosecutors Luck Campbell, Dolly Justice Garfield
and Walker on Wednesday also began presenting witnesses whose testimony
will bring into a play a wide range of technological evidence.
This
evidence, witnesses testified, will include FBI Special Agent’s Michael
Sutton’s analysis of Sprint cell phone records to pinpoint Zinah
Jennings’ location on certain key dates, surveillance videos from
various Columbia banks and food establishments to show Jennings both
with and without Amir, and information from places where Jennings used
Electronic Benefits Transfer – a government-issued debit card used as
food stamps.
The trial before Judge Knox McMahon moves into its third day of testimony today at the Richland County courthouse.

http://www.thestate.com/2012/08/30/2417449/missing-boys-father-testifies.html#.UEIL6SLhcfY

Zinah Jennings, Mother of Amir Jennings, Gives Birth to Second Child

08/31/2012
Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Zinah Jennings, the mother of missing Columbia toddler Amir Jennings, has given birth to a second child.

Sources confirmed to News19 that the woman had a baby girl at 3 a.m.
at Palmetto Richland. The judge in her trial later confirmed the birth,
and said that the mother and child are healthy. They are expected to
leave the hospital Sunday.

Jennings, 24, has been on trial this week on a charge of unlawful
conduct toward a child in the disappearance of her son. Amir Jennings
was last seen in late November.

Columbia police say Zinah Jennings has not given them information on where the child may be.
During testimony Thursday--which Zinah Jennings was present for--a
friend of Zinah's gave information about her state of mind. The
woman testified that in the weeks before the child's disappearance,
Zinah Jennings stopped playing with her child and changing his diapers.

Her defense attorney, Hemphill Pride, announced Friday that he will move for a mistrial when court resumes next Tuesday.

Jennings faces up to 10 years in prison if she's found guilty of child neglect.

http://www.wltx.com/news/article/199827/2/Mom-of-Missing-Toddler-Gives-Birth-to-Second-Child-

Judge lets case against missing boy's mom proceed

09/04/2012
COLUMBIA,
S.C. (AP) — Just four days after giving birth to a second child, a
South Carolina mother was back in court Tuesday in the case of her
missing son.
Prosecutors continued presenting their case against Zinah Jennings,
the 23-year-old Columbia mother charged with unlawful neglect toward a
child. Jennings' trial began last week, and defense attorneys are
expected to soon begin putting up their case.
Amir
Jennings was 18 months old when he was last seen around Thanksgiving.
His mother has refused to tell police where he is but said she left him
somewhere safe.
Jennings gave birth to a girl early Friday morning. Circuit Judge Knox McMahon
rejected a request for a mistrial filed by Jennings' attorney but said
that he would take more frequent breaks to give her time to rest and
recuperate from childbirth.
One
of the officers who interrogated Jennings after her December arrest
testified about executing search warrants on Jennings' car, cellphone
and mother's home. In court, Assistant Solicitor Luck Campbell held up a shovel that police found at the house, as well as the boy's Social Security card and birth certificate, both of which were found inside the room he shared with his mother.
Investigator Colin Bailey
also told jurors that Jennings' mother told police her daughter — and
grandson — had allegedly been with a half-sister in Georgia throughout
fall 2011 before returning to Columbia. At one point, Jennings told
Columbia police that her son was still in Atlanta, but officers there
could find no trace of the boy.
"She
did not tell us where he was, what state he was in, what family member
or friend she had left the child with," Bailey said of the
interrogation. "She did not give us any concrete information."
Police
also traced Jennings' government-issued food stamps card and collected
surveillance video from businesses she frequented but never saw the boy
on video after a stop at a bank in late November.
"When
Zinah told us that Amir was in a safe place, that was a lie," Bailey
said, adding that no one is collecting benefits under the boy's name or
Social Security number.
Bailey
also read from an interview transcript with Jennings after her arrest.
In the two-hour interview, which was played in court last week, Jennings
reportedly began to cry when asked about where she dropped off her son.
"I can't see your eyes, but you're shaking your head no," Sgt. Arthur Thomas said to Jennings. "And you're crying."
"I'm sorry," Jennings responds.
"Then prove to me your child is alive," Thomas says.
"I can't," Jennings replies, according to the transcript.
Jennings
also told officers she would never hurt her son, according to the
interview transcript. Last week, a friend testified that she had seen
Jennings kick her son. Another witness said she saw Jennings squeeze the
boy's hand when he wouldn't say "mama."
Those
women were two of the dozens of witnesses prosecutors put of last week,
many whom testified that Jennings felt overwhelmed by the
responsibilities of parenting. One high school friend said that the
young mother told her she often pondered selling or giving away her son
to alleviate the stress, or even throwing him out a window.
The
boy's father also testified that he wanted to play more of a role in
his son's life but Jennings wouldn't let him. Several relatives and
friends also said they would have helped Jennings care for the boy if
she had asked.
Prosecutors
asked the judge to let them introduce evidence about cadaver dogs,
which were used to search Jennings' car, her mother's home and a
sprawling area near Columbia. Last month, McMahon ruled that evidence
related to the dogs was relevant to the case but may not be introduced
at trial, a decision he upheld Tuesday.
McMahon
has also already ruled that evidence about Amir's bloodstains being
found on items in Jennings' car can be introduced at trial.
Jennings has been jailed since December. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Judge-lets-case-against-missing-boy-s-mom-proceed-3838433.php#ixzz25XkXuolY

Defense Set To Begin in Case of Missing Amir Jennings

7:35 AM, Sep 5, 2012
Written by Derry London

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The prosecution is wrapping up its case against the mother of the missing South Carolina toddler.

Prosecutors expect on Wednesday to rest their case against Zinah Jennings on a charge of unlawful conduct toward a child.

Amir Jennings was 18 months old when he was last seen around Thanksgiving, and his mother has refused to tell police where he is but said she left him somewhere safe.

Defense attorneys will begin their case after the prosecution finishes.

Jennings gave birth to a baby girl last week, and a judge ruled that she is well enough to stay on trial this week. A high school friend testified last week Jennings told her she was stressed and pondered selling or giving away the boy.

http://www.wltx.com/news/article/200493/2/Defense-Set-To-Begin-in-Case-of-Missing-Amir-Jennings

Zinah Jennings Found Guilty of Unlawful Conduct Toward Child

12:33 PM, Sep 7, 2012
Written by Tony Santaella

Columbia, SC (WLTX, AP) - A jury has found Zinah Jennings guilty in connection with the disappearance of her son, Amir Jennings.

The jury deliberated for just under three hours Friday before rendering their decision against the Columbia woman.

Jennings was charged with unlawful conduct toward a child. Police say Amir was last seen during a visit to a bank with his mother back in November of last year.

During the trial, prosecutors brought over three dozen witnesses to testify. The defense called just two, including Zinah Jennings's mother.

Some of the prosecution witnesses testified the mother said she was stressed and needed a break from the boy. Her mother said she didn't believe her daughter would have ever harmed him.

Zinah Jennings never took the stand in her own defense.

During deliberations, the judge received two notes from the jury: one requested a copy of the statute, the other asked for 12 copies of Jennings's statements to police, and state and defense consented.

She faces up to 10 years in prison during sentencing.

http://www.wltx.com/news/article/200789/2/Zinah-Jennings-Found-Guilty-

Despite pleas, missing SC boy falls by wayside

Originally published: September 9, 2012 8:44 AM
Updated: September 9, 2012 12:54 PM
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Despite detectives' pleas to national media, the disappearance of an 18-month-old black boy with the wide smile has yet to grab the widespread attention given to other missing children's cases. Some advocates say the reason why may be as simple as the toddler's gender -- and his race.

From the still-unsolved slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey more than 15 years ago to the disappearance and killing of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, the public has watched with rapt attention as many cases involving young children unfolded, often over many months. Yet Amir Jennings, the little boy who hasn't been seen since he was captured on surveillance video with his mother in South Carolina nearly a year ago, has registered as scarcely a blip on the nation's consciousness.

"Media has always leaned toward the cute little kids," said Monica Caison of the Wilmington, N.C.-based CUE Center for Missing Persons. "And unfortunately, a lot of times they think cute little kids are white."

Amir's mother, Zinah Jennings, was convicted Friday on a charge related to his disappearance and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The 23-year-old woman has been jailed since December, and police arrested her after she told them false, misleading stories about the boy's whereabouts. Jennings has maintained that she left the boy somewhere safe, but prosecution witnesses said the young mother claimed she was stressed and pondered selling or giving away the boy.

Jennings' mother says she last saw her wide-eyed, giggly grandson early on the morning of Nov. 28, 2011. He went to a bank with his mother the next day but has not been seen since. A store owner has testified she saw the boy and his mother a month later, but prosecutors challenged that assertion, and there was no surveillance video to back up the claim.

In the months since he disappeared, Amir's grandmother has celebrated his second birthday. His mother has given birth to a second child. And the national spotlight that initially shone on the case has waned.

One of the reasons could be as simple as Amir being a boy. While federal officials say the numbers of the missing are roughly split when it comes to gender, Caison said pedophiles tend to seek out girls, while missing boys often are taken by a parent or other relative.

And in her searches for adult males, Caison said, she has an even harder time getting anyone to pay attention.

"People want to think that missing males are OK and safe," she said. "I still sit back every day and scratch my head and say, 'Why can't you pick these cases up?'"

Amir's story has gotten nowhere near the attention of cases like that of Caylee Anthony, a 2-year-old white Orlando girl whose body was found a month after she was reported missing in 2008. Anthony's mother was arrested and charged with murder after telling a string of lies to the police.

The case captivated the nation for months and culminated with the trial of the girl's mother, Casey Anthony. Radio shows enlisted attorneys to provide analysis during the morning commute, while cable television networks covered every moment in the courtroom.

People camped outside the courthouse to make sure they could sit in the gallery the next morning. Protests erupted when Casey Anthony was acquitted of a murder charge; her attorneys devised an elaborate plan to shake the media when she was whisked away from jail.

In the Ramsey case, water-cooler speculation swirled for years about who killed the child beauty pageant queen in 1996 and who wrote the ransom note found at the murder scene. Her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were demonized by the public for years until prosecutors apologized and said DNA evidence excluded them as suspects. No one was ever charged in her death.

So why are some cases elevated in the public sphere, while others are not?

Jacqueline Fish, a former law officer and current criminal justice professor at Charleston Southern University, said law enforcement ideally takes each case seriously, and each case has had police and prosecutors who have spoken publicly about the need for justice. But inherently, Fish said, every case is still somewhat subjective. Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott is black, and surmised he might have seen something of one of his own children in Amir -- and pushed initially to publicize the case.

After Jennings' arrest, Scott reached out to the media to ask for help finding the missing boy. Yellow flyers began popping up around Columbia. Groups organized vigils to pray for Amir's safe return.

"I want someone to call us and say, 'We just saw this on the news, we have Amir, we're sorry, we didn't realize this was going on,'" Scott said at a January news conference announcing that a tip line had been set up. "Her stories are so across the board."

In his investigation's early days, Scott also appeared on several national cable news shows, saying that Jennings continued to change her story when pressed for information about her son. Jennings' mother also made appeals for help, asking at a news conference for any information about the boy she called "Mir Mir" and "AJ." She sat down several times with The Associated Press, describing her conflicting emotions of concern for her grandson and support for her daughter.

But as the weeks dragged on, and no credible tips moved the case forward, the national news outlets stopped calling. Scott said his officers continued their investigation, but no bombshells came.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about 800,000 children are reported missing in the United States a year, and nearly all reported missing to the police -- almost 99 percent -- are returned home alive. More than half of those are white, while about 150,000 are black, and 164,000 are Hispanic.

Amir's body has not been found, although police have said from the beginning that they feared foul play had been involved in his disappearance. But it's the uncertainty of his fate, Fish said, that could play a role in the lack of widespread attention.

"Someone needs to be brought to justice," Fish said. "In Amir's case, they can't be out for justice because we don't know what happened to him."

Officials with the Black and Missing Foundation, Inc., an organization that focuses on finding missing minorities, said they struggle to get and maintain news coverage of minority missing persons cases.

"We are making some headway, but there are still challenges," said co-founder Natalie Wilson, who said she sometimes gets pushback when pitching a story to media outlets.

Noting she has had some recent successes pitching missing minority cases to media outlets, Wilson said she's often told that editors and producers can't promise coverage and don't have the time to run a big piece. In one instance, a plea for help to find a young missing black girl was bumped to report the news that Paris Hilton had been released from jail.

"How does that supersede someone's life?" Wilson asked. "Can you imagine how her parents would feel?"

Attention on a missing child case should be the same -- intense -- regardless of gender or race," Caison said.

"It's not an excuse," Caison said. "A child missing should be aired because of the fact that they're a child, that they're away from safe haven, and that there's foul play or other concerns involved."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/despite-pleas-missing-sc-boy-falls-by-wayside-1.3985149

Police still searching for Amir Jennings 1 year after disappearance

by Rob Starkey
Posted: 11.30.2012 at 6:14 PM

COLUMBIA (WACH) - Where is Amir Jennings?

It is a question the Midlands community has been asking for more than one year.

Amir Jennings was last seen in late November 2011.

Amir's father, Roderick Mitchell, testified in August that the last days he spent with Amir were Nov. 22 and Nov. 29 of last year. Amir was also captured on surveillance video at a bank just before December.

Investigators say the child's mother, Zinah Jennings, first told them in December of last year that she did not have a son, however, she later changed her story stating he was with friends in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Zinah Jennings is now in jail serving time for unlawful conduct toward a child.

Columbia police are still actively searching for the missing boy.

"There is one person that knows what happened to Amir. There is one person that knows where Amir was last at," said Chief Randy Scott.

Jennings refuses to speak with authorities, but that has not slowed down investigators who continue to follow tips and leads daily.

As time goes by, those tips are dwindling, which is making the investigation tougher for authorities.

"Reality is, as days go along, it's harder and harder for us to piece together where Amir is," said Scott.

Chief Scott says a search of the mother's home turned up a shovel and bloody clothes and blankets. Bloodstains belonging to Amir were also found in Jennings' car.

"We have evidence and clues of what happened, but to bring the family closure - or to bring the child back to the family, that is our end goal," said Scott.

Still, with all those clues, authorities and family are not giving up hope. The Jennings' home and neighbors' homes are covered with pictures of Amir.

"Kids in our community - that we're not willing to let go. I don't think the community is going to let go, and I know law enforcement is not going to let go," said Scott.

The search will continue until a young Midlands boy comes home.

If citizens have any information. They can call, text or submit online, their anonymous tip to CrimeStoppers in any of the following ways:

CALL toll-free, 1-888-CRIME-SC.

TEXT to CRIMES (274637), and mark the beginning of the message with "TIPSC, followed by the tip information.

LOG onto: www.midlandscrimestoppers.com, and click on the red "Submit a tip tab.

Tipsters could earn a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the suspect.

http://www.midlandsconnect.com/news/story.aspx?id=831826#.ULoxY2ebx1U