Fort Lauderdale man arrested in connection with fatal Lauderhill shooting

LAUDERHILL — Jesse Dave Corbitt’s body was discovered in the backyard of a home in Lauderhill on Sept. 28.

His body was already “stiff and cold,” the person who called 911 to report the body told dispatchers. Within minutes of the call, Lauderhill Fire Rescue arrived in the 3100 block of Northwest NW Fourth Court and pronounced Corbitt dead.

Police found Corbitt, 56, of Boynton Beach, lying face down in the yard, one shoe on with the other behind a shed with what appeared to be blood on it, according to an arrest warrant. On the shed was what appeared to be a palm-sized smudge of blood.

Underneath Corbitt’s body, a black and brown revolver was in his hand with five live rounds inside. But the two gunshot wounds to the torso that Corbitt died from were not self-inflicted or from the gun found in his hand, records say.

Police arrested Laquentin

Jenkins, 37, of Fort Lauderdale, on Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge in connection with Corbitt’s murder. Surveillance video at the Lauderhill home where Corbitt’s body was found captured a man who police believe to be Jenkins getting into a car and leaving the crime scene, the warrant says.

A camera at a home down the street captured a 2017 white Honda Pilot, which fit the description for Jenkins ‘car, driving down the block about 8:30 a.m. Sept. 27, the warrant says.

The day after Corbitt’s body was discovered, the Broward Sheriff ’s Office Burglary Apprehension Team watched the white Honda Pilot in Lauderhill. Deputies followed the car, driven by a woman and three kids, to a home in the 1000 block of Southwest 29th Way in Fort Lauderdale, according to police.

As detectives approached the woman, a man wearing all black darted from the back of the home, the warrant says. He ran, jumping fences to get away until police caught up to him over two miles away.

Police identified him as Jenkins, who matched the description of the suspect captured on surveillance video from the Lauderhill home where Corbitt was found, the warrant says. But Jenkins would not be arrested for another 33 days.

In mid-October, detectives learned that the bullets that killed Corbitt were not fired from the revolver that was found in his hand that day in September. The next day, detectives searched the Honda Pilot and found a letter with Jenkins’ name on it, the warrant says.

Days later, detectives used data from a cell phone Jenkins used to determine that Jenkins’ phone was in the area where Corbitt’s body was found at the time of the murder, the warrant says.

That same device’s data showed that on Sept. 27 shortly before 8:30 a.m. received a call two minutes before the Honda Pilot was captured driving by the crime scene.