Houston Man Pleads Guilty in Kids’ Deaths

HOUSTON (AP) _ A Houston driver has pleaded guilty in the drowning deaths of five children in a rain-swollen ditch last year. Police say Chanton Jenkins was driving drunk and using his cell phone when he lost control of his car with seven passengers. Two survived.

The plea came as Jenkins’ trial was set to begin. 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, 33, was facing five counts of intoxication manslaughter. Police say blood tests showed Jenkins was legally drunk 2 1/2 hours after the car plunged into the ditch in April 2009.

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