Augusta man convicted of 2018 murder

Maurice Jenkins. Photo courtesy augustacrime.com

Date: July 16, 2022

An Augusta man convicted of murder this week was sentenced to life in prison.

A Richmond County Superior Court jury convicted Maurice L. Jenkins, 57, of murder in the May 23, 2018, death of 47-year-old Joaquin Ruiz-Figuero.

Ruiz-Figuero’s body was found wrapped in a tarp behind the Milledgeville Road trailers where he, Jenkins and Keith A. Kearney, 58, lived in May 2018.

MORE: Murder trial begins in 2018 Augusta homicide

Kearney was also charged with murder, but he died in 2020.

In her opening statement to the jury this week, Assistant District Attorney Deshala Dixon said Jenkins and Kearney beat Ruiz-Figuero — Kearney used an iron tool and a baseball bat — before they dragged the victim’s body to the porch.

It was there that Jenkins stuck a gun in the victim’s ear and fired a shot then shot him a second time in the head, Dixon said.

Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com. 

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The Author

Award-winning journalist Sandy Hodson The Augusta Press courts reporter. She is a native of Indiana, but she has been an Augusta resident since 1995 when she joined the staff of the Augusta Chronicle where she covered courts and public affairs. Hodson is a graduate of Ball State University, and she holds a certificate in investigative reporting from the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization. Before joining the Chronicle, Hodson spent six years at the Jackson, Tenn. Sun. Hodson received the prestigious Georgia Press Association Freedom of Information Award in 2015, and she has won press association awards for investigative reporting, non-deadline reporting, hard news reporting, public service and specialty reporting. In 2000, Hodson won the Georgia Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and in 2001, she received Honorable Mention for the same award and is a fellow of the National Press Foundation and a graduate of the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting boot camp.

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