Oxygen Insider Exclusive!

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!

Sign Up for Free to View
Crime News Breaking News

Wedding Bells Ringing For Death Row Inmate Who Brutally Murdered Four People During Killing Spree

“He’s an enigma. He has feelings. He’s very sensitive. He’s very intelligent and, yes, he’s very manipulating," Dawn Arguello said of Nikko Jenkins, who got her name tattooed on his face in prison.

By Jill Sederstrom

Wedding bells may be in the future for a Nebraska death row inmate, convicted of brutally killing four people, and a Texas woman who claims the killer is “not what the media has made him out to be.”

Dawn Arguello, 46, confirmed her plans to wed Nikko Jenkins — a man who tattooed her name across his face — to the Omaha World Herald.

“He’s not what the media has made him out to be,” she told the paper of the man who killed four people over a 10-day period in 2013. “He’s an enigma. He has feelings. He’s very sensitive. He’s very intelligent and, yes, he’s very manipulating.”

But while she said she has deep feelings for Jenkins, she wasn’t pleased when he tattooed her name on his face.

“I was very (ticked) off that he did that,” she said. “He doesn’t need to be self-mutilating like that.”

Nikko Jenkins Ap

It isn’t the first time Jenkins has engaged in self-mutilation. He also sliced his own penis while incarcerated to try to make it look like a serpent, the Omaha World Herald reported in 2015. The unconventional move was allegedly an attempt to pay homage to the Egyptian serpent god Apophis and required 27 stitches.

He’s also cut the word “Satan” into his face and tried to slice his tongue to make it look like a serpent, the paper reported.

Arguello, a resident of Lubbock, Texas, met Jenkins while she was volunteering with a nonprofit inmate advocacy group.

Although she declined to discuss many details of the relationship with the paper, the Omaha World Herald reported that she did eventually confirm her desire to marry Jenkins.

Jenkins was sentenced to death after a violent killing spree in August 2013. The killings began when Jenkins enlisted the help of his sister and cousin to lure two men, Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz and Juan Uribe-Pena, to a park under the pretense of performing sex acts. Jenkins shot both men in the head.

Then, a few days later, he killed another man, Curtis Bradford. He had gone with his sister and Bradford to commit a robbery when the slaying occurred. Finally, Jenkins was convicted of killing Andrea Kruger, after pulling the mother of three from her SUV at an intersection.   

Jenkins has reportedly asked the Supreme Court to review his death sentence, claiming he never received the mental health help he needed before he was released from prison on an armed robbery conviction shortly before his killing spree began, according to The Washington Times.

Jenkins spent more than five years of his 10-year prison sentence for the robbery in solitary confinement. He reportedly has struggled with mental health issues since he was 8 years old, the paper reports.

Read more about: