BODY FOUND AT EX-PAHOKEE FOOTBALL STAR’S HOME
The older brother of Janoris Jenkins, the former Pahokee High football standout and current New York Giants player, was charged Wednesday in the death of a 25-year-old music producer whose body was found in Jenkins’ New Jersey home.
William H. Jenkins Jr., 34, faces a charge of aggravated manslaughter in the death of Roosevelt Rene, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office announced Wednesday.
He was already in custody in upstate New York after authorities arrested him near Rochester early Tuesday. Ontario County District Attorney Jim Ritts said Jenkins’ arrest there was for an unrelated parole violation.
Authorities in Bergen County asked to speak to William Jenkins after classifying him as a person of interest in Rene’s death.
It was not clear Wednesday whether William Jenkins had recent connections to Palm Beach County beyond having family members here. He was released from state prison in April 2006 after serving a 30-month sentence for aggravated battery, burglary and grand theft, state records show. At that time, he listed a Pahokee residence as his address.
He was released on parole from a state prison in New York in July 2016 after serving five years on a drug conviction, records show.
Janoris Jenkins, 29, reportedly was in Florida when Rene’s body was discovered Monday at Jenkins’ house in Fair Lawn, N.J., about 10 miles northwest of MetLife Stadium, the home stadium of the Giants.
Social media posts had him at a youth football camp in West Palm Beach on Saturday and in Miami and Orlando at other times during the off-season. According to the website NJ.com, Jenkins has been in Florida since the Giants ended their minicamp in mid-June.
Jenkins also owns a home at The Wanderers Club, a gated community in Wellington, Palm Beach County property tax records show.
Rene was a family friend who had been staying at Jenkins’ New Jersey residence, according to published reports.
According to reports, Rene produced music under the name Trypps Beatz. The NFL Network reported that authorities were investigating a possible strangulation or suffocation in Rene’s death. An autopsy is pending by the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Jenkins has not made any public statements about the situation. Giants officials released a statement to media in the New York area saying the team was monitoring the case.
Messages left by The Post on Wednesday for both the Giants communications office and the sports agency that represents Jenkins were not returned.
Jenkins signed with the Giants as a free-agent cornerback in 2016 after beginning his NFL career as a second-round draft pick of the St. Louis Rams in 2012.
Before his NFL career, Jenkins helped the Blue Devils in 2007 win the second of two straight Class 2B state football championships. He was The Post’s small-schools All Area Defensive Player of the Year that season.
He signed with the University of Florida, where he became an all-SEC cornerback and a three-year starter before being dismissed by then-Florida coach Will Muschamp after two marijuana-related arrests. Jenkins finished his college career at the University of North Alabama.