Slain Lotto Winner’s Ex-Spouse Is Indicted

The ex-husband of a North County lottery winner was indicted Monday for her slaying in what a prosecutor said was a calculated plan to prevent her from using the new-found wealth to retain full custody of their two children.

David Scott Harrison, now serving 20 years for a bombing, arson and insurance fraud, was named in a one-count indictment returned by the San Diego County Grand Jury for the first-degree murder of Anne Marie Jenkins.

The body of the 30-year-old woman was found with her throat slashed in her San Marcos home in February, 1988, just three weeks after she and her new husband, Gary Jenkins, won $727,000 in the California Lottery.

Day After Court Ruling

The slaying also occurred the day after a court ruled that Anne Jenkins should receive proceeds from the sale of property once jointly owned by her and Harrison.

But Larry Burns, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Harrison on the federal bomb charges and who will now try him for murder, said it was the lottery winnings that convinced Harrison to go through with his alleged plans to kill his ex-wife.

He said Harrison feared that her lottery windfall would help her win the civil proceedings that had been strung out since their divorce in 1981, and eventually cause him to lose full custody to their two children.

Aware of Financial Situation

“The evidence that was developed showed that he was very, very much aware of her financial situation,” Burns said. “He wanted to deplete her financial resources and drain her so he could prevail in the civil proceedings. And then he was very, very discouraged to learn she had won the lottery.”

Harrison’s defense attorney, Oscar Goodman of Las Vegas, was out of town Monday and could not be reached for comment. But he said last week that he never expected the grand jury to indict his client on the murder charge.

However, Gary Jenkins said Monday that the indictment brings some relief to him and the children.

“I knew this was coming,” he said. “I just wish I could turn back the clock and make things different. Now I just hope that justice does prevail here.

“But I also know I will have to tell the two children who belong to David, and how do I tell them their father has been charged with their mother’s murder?”

Burns had been seeking the murder indictment for some months. But the proceedings before the grand jury were tied up in court appeals after a defense investigator refused to divulge to the grand jury the identities of two witnesses. Those witnesses allegedly saw a man fitting Harrison’s description arguing with Anne Jenkins in her driveway on the day she was killed.

But one of those witnesses later surfaced to testify before the grand jury, along with 19 other people.

According to authorities, Harrison, 32, and Jenkins were high school sweethearts who married in 1976 and had two children. But after their 1981 divorce, the couple became embroiled in a long and angry legal dispute over child support and visitation rights.

Battle Continued to Fester

In 1985, Anne married Gary Jenkins. But according to evidence in the federal case against Harrison, the civil battle between her and Harrison continued to fester.

“At one point,” said Steve Casey, a spokesman in the District Attorney’s office, “Anne Jenkins was out of funds and obliged to represent herself in the ongoing litigation.”

At the same time, authorities said, Harrison was able to continue the legal fight over the children because of extensive financial holdings in his family.

Then came the lottery payout, on a winning ticket that Gary Jenkins purchased at an Escondido 7-Eleven store and for which Anne Jenkins chose the winning numbers.

According to evidence in the federal bomb case, investigators found numerous items allegedly belonging to Harrison that indicate he began to seriously plan a violent act, particularly after she won the lottery.

‘Joy of Cold Revenge’

The federal court documents state that he had collected four pipe bombs, four cans of smokeless gunpowder, and numerous books on how to commit murder, such as “The Joy of Cold Revenge” and “The Perfect Crime and How to Commit It.”

“Who’s going to buy a book called ‘The Joy of Cold Revenge’ and then not set out to follow those steps?” asked prosecutor Burns.

Much of that evidence was turned over in the federal bomb case, which led to Harrison pleading guilty to bombing a van and setting a boat on fire, and also for falsely reporting his car stolen to collect insurance money.

He drew a 20-year sentence on those charges, and is now in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. He is expected to be arraigned next week for murder.