Kitchens ranked top ten in the long jump at both the American indoor and outdoor championships in his first year as a professional in 2006. He competed sparingly in the 2007 and 2008 seasons. He re-emerged in 2009 with a fourth-place finish at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships,[3] followed by a podium finish at the USA Outdoors, taking third with a mark of 8.23 m. Typically this would have gained him a spot for the World Championships squad, but because the mark was wind-aided and he did not possess the "A" qualifying standard, he did not get called up.[4] He began to compete in Europe for the first time that year and set a new best of 7.98 m at a meeting in Salamanca, Spain.[5] He failed to build on this in 2010 and he finished out of the top ten at the USA Outdoors with his season's best mark of 7.64 m.[3]
He started the 2012 season strongly at the Georgia Relays, winning with a wind-assisted jump of 8.27 m and setting a wind-legal personal record of 8.14 m.[6] He placed third at the Colorful Daegu Meeting and the Adidas Grand Prix meet in New York City.[3] He earned his first ever national selection at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, where his personal best clearance of 8.21 m was enough for third place in the long jump.[4] He failed to match this form at the 2012 Summer Olympics, clearing only 6.84 m in the qualifying round to finish 39th overall.[7]
The following year he won his first and only national title at the 2013 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, recording a wind-assisted mark of 8.23 m. He set his season's best two weeks later in Chula Vista with a winning jump of 8.17 m. He again failed to take his form into international competition and was eliminated in the qualifying at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics with a jump of 7.75 m. After making a limited number of appearances in 2014 and 2015, he retired from competitive athletics.[7]
Following his retirement Kitchens was arrested for aggravated assault and gun threats against his mother and sister in June 2016, after making demands for money. Kitchens had suffered violence as a child including being shot in the chest and arm at the age of 12 in an attack in which his sister was also paralyzed.[8][9]