Samuele Jenkins puts on a stoic front during his days at the Gaston County Jail.
“In here, I can’t show weakness, so I can’t be crying,” he said.
That’s during the day. At night, he wakes up in tears, tortured by the death of his 7-year-old son, Legend, who was struck and killed when he stepped into a road on May 27.
Jenkins and his wife, Jessica Ivey, were arrested two days later and charged with involuntary manslaughter and multiple counts of child abuse. Their alleged crime: allowing their 10- and 7-year-old children to walk home, two blocks away, without an adult, leading to the younger child’s death.
This story was photographed for NBC with the headline: ‘A 7-year-old's parents were arrested after he was killed by a car. Now they're speaking out from jail.’
