Cops: Woman in deadly crash had brakes cut for crack pipe

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 3:42 pm CDT, Wednesday, August 29, 2018

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Police in Pennsylvania say a man who cut his girlfriend's brake lines trying to get piece of pipe for crack smoking faces homicide charges after she lost control of the car, crashed into a tree and died.

John Jenkins, of Dunmore, is being held without bail in the Aug. 22 death of 38-year-old Tammy Fox.

A witness says the car was traveling about 60 mph and the brake lights flashed, but it never slowed down before the crash.

According to court documents, Jenkins told police Fox was "driving him crazy" because she was looking for a pipe to smoke crack in.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Cops-Woman-in-deadly-crash-had-brakes-cut-for-13191546.php

[ADX]

1. He could have just rolled some aluminum foil into a pipe...

...but no, he had to get all fancy so now his girlfriend's dead and he's in jail with no bond.

Crack's a helluva drug...

[VMA131Marine]

2. So here is a bit more to this which makes the story above less believable

It's odd that the woman who was killed was a key witness against three prison guards.

"Fox was a key witness against several former Lackawanna County prison guards accused of sexually abusing inmates.

She came forward in 2016 to allege she was repeatedly sexually abused while incarcerated at the county prison. Her testimony before a statewide investigative grand jury led to charges against three of the seven former guards arrested in February: Mark A. Johnson, James J. Walsh and John Shnipes Jr.

A Gofundme.com campaign to help with Fox’s funeral expenses has raised a little more than $6,000 of its $7,500 goal by late Tuesday.

It is unclear why Jenkins was jailed in Luzerne County when troopers initially talked to him Monday. On Tuesday night, Magisterial District Judge Joanne Price Corbett arraigned Jenkins on a criminal homicide charge.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 5."

https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/news/police-man-charged-with-homicide-after-he-admitted-cutting-girlfriend-s-brakes-leading-to-fatal-wreck-1.2379476


Also a mother of FIVE!

""She was a very sweet, caring person. She'd done a lot of things for other people and this is what happens, it's just horrible,” said one woman who did not want her name revealed.

Fox was a mother of five and a witness in the case against former Lackawanna County corrections officers accused of corruption and sexually assaulting female inmates.

"From what I understand she was run off the road a month or so ago and it just seems wrong, you cut somebody's brake line to use the line to smoke crack? I mean that's a little far-fetched,” the woman said.

Jenkins is locked up without bail."

https://wnep.com/2018/08/28/deadly-crash-victims-break-lines-were-cut-state-police/

[Judi Lynn]

3. This information does throw a lot of doubt on the first article.

It's also odd the article has Jenkins insisting he was the one, and that it couldn't have been anyone else who cut the brake line.

It also doesn't seem sane to EVER do anything at all to a brake line unless you're doing it intentionally to kill someone.

There is every reason to be skeptical about this strange confession.

Thank you.

[FakeNoose]

9. This updated article from the Scranton newspaper

...says Tammy Fox was breaking up with the boyfriend, according to her sister. So the guy might have had a motive and this could have been murder. Or another theory is that he might have been set up to take the fall by one of the prison guards who wanted to get rid of a key witness.

There are a lot of unknowns in this messy story. It's a sad ending for Tammy Fox, who was the mother of 5 children.

https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/news/before-she-died-woman-s-text-messages-to-sister-suggest-domestic-abuse-1.2379745

[NBachers]

4. Smoking crack using a brake line would mean you're smoking brake fluid. This seems highly unlikely.

[christx30]

5. I wouldn't put a lot of stock in the logic of crack smokers. N/T

[LisaL]

6. That about sums it up.

[JohnnyRingo]

7. Nonsense. Hasn't anyone ever smoked crack and fixed brakes?

Brake lines, which generally run along the bottom of the car, have an inside diameter of only 3/16". One would have to crawl under a 6" clearance and use a pipe cutter to prevent pinching the ends closed.

Of course, anyone able to accomplish that feat may have the McGyver skills to form that straight piece of steel tube into a crack pipe, but the rock has to nestle on a vented surface while it's heated. A simple straight piece of pipe would shoot the rock down the throat like a pea shooter. Then there's the residual brake fluid. It's not that it's bad for you, it's that smoking brake fluid would never get past your throat due to an immediate violent reaction. Having said that, I never smoked brake fluid, but I have smoked crack, fixed brakes, and ate a stink bug once.

What may be true here is that someone cut her brake lines and someone is trying to negotiate down from willful attempted homicide to mere negligence of a stupid crack head. Six months in rehab and probation.

[NBachers]

10. Plus, the brake lines are up against the underside of the car. You can't turn the pipe cutter;

it would hit the undercarriage of the car. There's no room to turn it.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. Yes, they have to be freed from the looms.

I guess one could get their hand around one and bend it down away from the car, but it would be easier to find something laying around that would work better. Even a few pin holes in the flattened side of beer a can works fine.

I should point out that I haven't touched crack since I got clean from coke in 1993. It was the next step up from freebase at the time. I do still work on my own cars however.

[jmbar2]

8. I'm calling the grammar police

She did not "have her brakes cut". Some dirtbag cut them.

I am seeing this bad grammar structure all over the interwebs lately. When the world is full of dirtbags, we need to hold them responsible for their deeds, and not assign said evil deeds to the victim.

jus sayin....