Sex Offender Pursues Deceased Utah Player’s House Settlement Payout

An incarcerated Texas man claiming to be the father of the late University of Utah football player Ty-Coreous (Ty) Jordan has been asked to provide additional documentation proving his legal right to …

An incarcerated Texas man claiming to be the father of the late University of Utah football player Ty-Coreous (Ty) Jordan has been asked to provide additional documentation proving his legal right to claim Jordan’s share of back pay from the House v. NCAA settlement.

Jordan, the Pac-12 freshman offensive player of the year in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, died on Christmas Day in 2020 from what authorities determined was an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound to the abdomen. His death came just four months after the passing of his mother, Tiffany Jordan, from cancer.

More from Sportico.com

In January 2021, a memorial for Ty Jordan was held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas—only the second time the Dallas Cowboys’ home venue had hosted such a service.

The claimant of Jordan’s back pay, 50-year-old Antwune Jenkins, is serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in two separate cases of aggravated sexual assault of a child. He has asserted that, as Jordan’s sole surviving parent, he is entitled to any funds owed to his son’s estate through football-related compensation, including the House settlement.

As a Power Five football or basketball player, Jordan would qualify for the highest compensation tiers under the House settlement, including payments for broadcast NIL, video-game NIL, lost opportunities and pay-for-play damages. However, because these categories are adjusted for seniority and years of participation, Jordan, who only played one eligible season, would earn less than players who had longer college careers.

The settlement agreement does not explicitly address how unpaid benefits are treated if a class member dies before receiving their full distribution. In practice, the remaining payments would most likely be handled in accordance to the probate and intestacy laws of a claimant’s state.

“If the heir has the legal paperwork that she or he has inherited the claim, the settlement administrator would honor that,” class co-counsel Jeffrey Kessler said in a text message.

In both Texas and Utah, as with many other states, the parents are the first in the beneficiary line of a decedent without a spouse or children.

In a status report filed this week, the House class counsel told the court that the settlement administrator previously determined a hand-written affidavit provided by Jenkins was “not sufficient proof of his beneficiary status.” The attorneys also said it was their understanding Jenkins “is not currently listed as Mr. Jordan’s father on his birth certificate.”

Jenkins subsequently sent class counsel a letter, which it received on Dec. 3, asking it to file a declaration with the court overseeing the House settlement to adjudicate Jenkins’ paternity and beneficiary status.

Following his sexual-assault convictions, Jenkins was sentenced to state prison in 2004; Jordan was 3 years old at the time. Two years earlier, Jordan’s mother had filed a child-support action against Jenkins in Dallas County Court and obtained a default judgment. Jenkins has stated in court records that he also has two daughters, who would be half-sisters to Jordan.

In a phone interview with Sportico, Jordan’s maternal grandmother Peggy Pondexter confirmed that Jenkins is Jordan’s biological father. Pondexter said she was unaware of Jenkins’ attempt to pursue potential estate money.

“It hurts my heart,” said Pondexter, who helped raise her grandson. “I don’t see any reason why he should get it. If you didn’t have any hand in helping raise this boy—seeing he got to school back and forth—then why are you trying to cash in on his name?”

Jenkins, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, has a projected release date of 2053, when he will be 73, though he becomes eligible for parole in 2028.

Pondexter said that the University of Utah covered the cost of Jordan’s funeral and that her grandson had insufficient assets upon his death to warrant probate. “He was a college kid,” she said.

Utah established a memorial scholarship in Jordan’s honor, with head Utes football coach Kyle Whittingham and his wife making an initial $100,000 contribution.

Separately, a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Jordan’s brother A’Jaun (A.J.) Moore, raised over $24,000. Jenkins has recently made a play for those monies as well in a lawsuit he filed in June against Utah. In that complaint, he sought recovery of “any monies paid to private unities, or people in individual capacity, or any. Monies received from private entities or people in their individual capacity including (GoFundMe), memorial fund, trust, scholarship fund and life insurance [or] revenue-generated in the name of ‘Ty Jordan.’”

That case was quickly dismissed on procedural grounds. In August, ahead of the October deadline, Jenkins completed and signed the four-page House settlement claim form and mailed it to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, requesting that the judiciary help him submit it electronically to the claim administrator. In September, Judge Claudia Wilken ordered class counsel to facilitate this process on Jenkins’ behalf. Wilken further directed that, because Jenkins lacks internet access in prison, all communications related to his claim must be sent in writing by mail to the Huntsville, Texas, state facility where he is being housed.

Jenkins previously invoked Jordan’s death in a 2023 civil-rights lawsuit he filed against three correctional officers, alleging they threatened to physically harm him over his use of a wheelchair. He further alleged the officers attempted to provoke him by confiscating a copy of Jordan’s obituary in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I begged them not to take it, it was all I had left of him,” Jenkins wrote. “This was retaliation.”

A federal judge dismissed that suit, which sought $3 million in damages, in September 2024; Jenkins has since appealed.

Pondexter, Jordan’s grandmother, said she only met Jenkins once and was previously unaware of him making any efforts to communicate with his son once he was imprisoned. Putting aside both the legal implications and her moral objection to his pursuit behind bars, she poses a practical question.

“What are you going to do with that money in prison anyway?” Pondexter said. “You can’t spend it.”

Best of Sportico.com

Source: Utah News