Houston Father Pleads Guilty in Drowning Deaths

HOUSTON (AP) _ A Houston man has pleaded guilty in the deaths of five children who drowned after the car they were in plunged into a rain-swollen ditch last year.

Chanton Jenkins pleaded guilty on Monday to five counts of intoxication manslaughter just before his trial had been set to start.

Police say Jenkins, 33, was driving drunk and using his cell phone in April 2009 when he lost control of his car, which was filled with seven passengers.

Jenkins, his brother and a 10-year-old girl escaped from the vehicle. But five children, including three of Jenkins’ kids, did not survive.

Jenkins will be sentenced in about two months and faces up to life in prison for each count.

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