A 54-year-old Baltimore woman was denied bail on Dec. 2 before Judge LaZette C. Ringgold-Kirksey, despite her attorney’s arguing she has significant medical needs, no prior criminal record and was wrongly accused in a gun-related incident stemming from a dispute inside a rental property.
According to charging documents and a Baltimore Police report, on Sept. 29, officers responded to a report of an aggravated assault on the 3700 block of Nortonia Road. The property’s homeowner, who was renting out the residence, told police he had arrived to check on plumbing issues. The residence was occupied by an unnamed man and the defendant, Erainia Jenkins.
The homeowner told police that he and the tenant went to the bathroom to inspect the issue when Jenkins intervened, insisting the bathtub needed to be redone. He told her to “mind her business” because she didn’t live there. Jenkins then allegedly became aggressive and became according to the report. The victim said he pushed Jenkins back and she swung at him, striking him.
He told officers that Jenkins then said she was “going to get her gun.” He reported that she later emerged with what appeared to be a 9 mm handgun, pointed it at him and allegedly said, “You are going to die, b*tch.” He fled the home and called 911.
Police noted they found no evidence a firearm had been discharged. Jenkins acknowledged an altercation occurred but denied ever pulling a gun, telling officers she had only held a TV remote.
In court, Jenkins’ attorney, Granville Templeton III, said the allegations are false and inconsistent with her background. “The allegations clearly don’t add up,” he said.
Templeton argued that Jenkins was living with her boyfriend at the time but was assaulted by him in a separate incident, and the firearm police recovered was found in a grill in a shared common area, not in her possession. He emphasized that Jenkins is afraid of guns and has lost multiple family members to gun violence. “She’s never touched a gun in her life,” he said.
Templeton told the court Jenkins has no prior criminal record, no protective orders and is not on probation or parole. He also highlighted her declining health in custody. Jenkins previously took insulin four times a day and, according to Templeton, has not consistently received her medication since being transferred from Baltimore’s jail to the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in Jessup. She has been in a diabetic coma before due to complications and recently fainted getting down from a top bunk—something Templeton said “isn’t the first time it’s happened.”
He urged the court to release her so she can access “necessary medical care,” adding, “I’m sure, once we get into this case, it’s gonna be dismissed.”
Judge Ringgold-Kirksey ultimately denied bail, keeping Jenkins detained as the case moves forward.
