Chad Holden Jennings (OSBI) and Caleb Jennings (KFOR screenshot)
A 34-year-old father in Oklahoma will spend the rest of his days behind bars for viciously beating his 3-year-old son to death and then burning the toddler’s remains in a makeshift burn pit. Seminole County Judge Timothy L. Olsen on Friday ordered Chad Holden Jennings to serve a sentence of life in a state correctional facility without the possibility of parole for the 2022 slaying of young Caleb Jennings, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Jennings in September of last year pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree murder, child abuse, conspiracy, and desecration of a human corpse in connection with his son’s death. Olsen also sentenced Jennings to an additional 10 years on the conspiracy charge and seven years on the desecration charge.
Jennings’ then-live-in girlfriend, Katherine Penner, pleaded guilty to charges of child abuse and desecration of a corpse, records show. She was subsequently sentenced to 37 years in prison.
Katherine Penner (OSBI)
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the Seminole Police Department at approximately 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27, 2022, received a tip about the possible murder of a toddler at a secluded location off Old Highway 99 South. Within hours of the tipster’s call, investigators obtained and executed a search warrant for a property in the 100 block of Old Highway 99 South in Seminole County, Oklahoma.
Upon arriving at the scene, officers discovered the burned remains of a toddler, later identified as Caleb.
