Police say a late-night stay at a West Milwaukee home ended with a deadly attack and an arrest at a casino hours later.

WEST MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A 38-year-old man is accused of beating his 66-year-old mother to death with a wooden baseball bat after she let him into her home for food and a place to sleep, according to a criminal complaint filed in Milwaukee County.

Prosecutors charged Hayward Jenkins with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Cheryl Jenkins after police said they found her dead Feb. 24 in the guest room of her home on South 44th Street. The case matters because it combines a family dispute, a fast-moving police search and a statement to investigators that described both the argument and the killing in blunt terms. Jenkins could face life in prison if convicted.

According to the complaint, Cheryl Jenkins’ fiancé told police her son arrived at the home around 9 or 10 p.m. the night before, knocking on a window and looking for help. She let him in, got him something to eat and allowed him to stay in the guest room. The fiancé said he went to bed between 10 and 10:30 p.m. after asking Cheryl Jenkins to come to bed as well. He later woke around 4 or 4:30 a.m. after hearing a noise, got up to check, and decided it likely came from upstairs neighbors. By then, he believed Cheryl Jenkins was in the guest room talking with her son, so he returned to bed.

The next morning, the fiancé told police, he woke around 7:30 a.m. and called Cheryl Jenkins because he still thought she was in the other room. When she did not answer, he knocked on the guest-room door, then checked the garage and saw the car still there. He returned to the room, found the door locked and entered through the bathroom, where he found her on the floor. Officers dispatched at 8:07 a.m. said they found Cheryl Jenkins face down with a wooden bat on top of her body. Officer Luis Gutierrez reported blood on the bat, a large wound to the back of her head, blood on her face and arm, and signs that the room had been disturbed, including a broken metal bed frame and blood spatter on the door and wall.

An autopsy by Dr. Lauren Decker at the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office found multiple blunt-force injuries, including skull fractures, hemorrhaging and injuries to the face, arm and legs, the complaint said. Prosecutors said those findings helped support the homicide charge and gave investigators a clearer picture of the violence inside the room. The complaint does not describe any prior court case between mother and son, and it does not answer how long the argument lasted before the attack. It also leaves open what happened in the time between the noise heard around 4 a.m. and the moment surveillance video later captured a man leaving the area.

Police said officers gathered video from nearby buildings and saw a person in dark clothing running between apartment buildings in the 1700 block of Miller Park Way before heading to a bus stop at Miller Park Way and West Mitchell Street. Investigators then reviewed bus footage and said it showed Jenkins waiting for and boarding a Milwaukee County Transit System bus at about 6:07 a.m. Hours later, after family members told officers he might be at Potawatomi Casino, police went there and took him into custody at about 12:33 p.m. Officers said he was wearing the same clothing seen in the surveillance video. In a statement given after receiving his rights, prosecutors said Jenkins told police he argued with his mother over silver coins, money and “her not listening” while he was trying to express himself.

In that same statement, according to the complaint, Jenkins said his mother had scissors in her hand and looked as if she might attack him. He told police he felt they were getting nowhere, became angry and “flipped out,” then got the bat and struck her in the head multiple times while she was sitting in a chair. Prosecutors said he later told investigators he “was wrong for murdering my mother.” Jenkins made an initial court appearance March 1, and local reports said his cash bond was set at $300,000. A preliminary hearing had been scheduled for March 10, though the outcome of that hearing was not available in the sources reviewed for this story.

Author note: Last updated March 30, 2026.