Sanity portion of trial starts for teen killer

      VISTA, Calif. -- Despite a Las Vegas teen's guilty plea last week to murdering five members of his family in 1996, the trial of Joshua Jenkins is far from over.
      Jury selection for the second phase of his trial is under way in a small, windowless courtroom in Vista, a community about 20 miles north of San Diego where the family was slain during a visit to Jenkins' grandparents' condominium.
      Twelve jurors will decide whether Jenkins, now 16, was legally sane or insane when he bludgeoned and stabbed to death his parents, George and Alene Jenkins of Las Vegas, his grandparents, William and Evelyn Grossman, and his sister Megan, 10.
      The trial's upcoming days will determine "where Joshua spends the rest of his life," said public defender Jack Campbell. "Is it going to be prison or a locked mental institution?"
      The initial screening of 80 potential jurors began Monday in Vista Superior Court. The jury could be empaneled today and opening statements may begin Thursday in a trial that is expected to last several weeks. Several Las Vegas Valley residents, including school district officials, are potential courtroom witnesses.
      Jenkins admitted stacking the four adult bodies in a bedroom, then taking his sister to buy an ax that he later used to kill her when she fell asleep after returning to the condo.
      He pleaded guilty on April 16 to five counts of first-degree murder and a count of arson. He set several small fires in the condo before fleeing in his parents' Mercedes-Benz. He was arrested the next morning after sleeping in the car in a store parking lot less than two miles from the murder scene.
      Deputy District Attorney Mark Pettine, who has referred to the former Cimarron-Memorial High School and Becker Middle School student as "a 15-year-old killing machine," doesn't agree with his courtroom opponent's assessment that Jenkins is assured of spending the rest of his life in confinement.
      If jurors find Jenkins not guilty by reason of insanity, the teen will go to a locked mental facility for six months, where he will be evaluated for mental illness by mental health professionals who will determine whether he is a danger to others.
      "If things go well for him there, he could be in an outpatient facility. That's the fast track," Pettine said, stressing that he is only outlining possibilities under the law. "If the doctors felt he was insane, he could be in there for the rest of his life."
      Campbell said Jenkins suffers from schizophrenia, a treatable but not curable mental disorder.
      "He's got an incurable disease, so he will be found not cured and he will be found to be dangerous. Almost nobody (in this situation) is found to have regained his sanity and not to be dangerous."
      Prospective jurors each filled out a nine-page questionnaire on Thursday. In addition to routine questions about whether they or anyone they know works in law enforcement, has been a crime victim or been sued, the jurors were asked about their acceptance of "psychiatry and psychology as legitimate areas of scientific and medical study."
      Judge John E. Einhorn read members of the jury pool a list of several dozen possible witnesses including several Las Vegas law enforcement officials, as well as four special-education experts from the Clark County School District, a school psychologist and Norton A. Roitman, a Las Vegas psychiatrist who examined Jenkins in 1994 at the request of the school district.
      Testimony during hearings in May 1996 to determine whether Jenkins would be tried as an adult showed that Roitman detected several possible serious mental illnesses after just one session with the boy. But George and Alene Jenkins objected strenuously to any diagnosis of mental illness and Jenkins never received psychiatric treatment.
      Jenkins underwent psychological review by Clark County school officials after several incidents, including one in which Jenkins was suspected of vandalizing a teacher's car.
      Las Vegas school officials eventually classified him as learning disabled rather than emotionally disturbed.
      Campbell admitted the defense team already has detected some concern among jurors that Jenkins "might get out to kill again." One woman in the jury pool wrote on her questionnaire, "It is a waste of taxpayers' money to keep him alive."
      Juveniles in California cannot be sentenced to death.