Dinkins pleads guilty in federal drug case
A 51-year-old Davenport man who was convicted last year in the death of a 10-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to an unrelated federal drug charge.
Henry Dinkins, who was found guilty in Breasia Terrell’s death, appeared Jan. 17 with his attorney Jack Dusthimer in an evidentiary hearing that lasted about an hour in the United States Courthouse, also known as the Federal Building, in downtown Davenport.
In documents filed Wednesday in federal court, the court accepted Dinkins’ guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Another charge will be dismissed at Dinkins’ sentencing set in federal court for May 15, court records show.
A hearing last week
In a document filed electronically on Dec. 27, Dinkins had asked for a motion to suppress evidence in a case that involves an April 25, 2019, Illinois traffic stop on Interstate 80.
During the hearing, two state troopers testified about the traffic stop on I-80 westbound at Mile Marker 66 on a van in which Dinkins was a passenger. One said the van was “weaving all over the roadway,” and that the van was rocking back and forth.
After a drug-sniffing K9 was brought to the scene, troopers found three bags with what turned out to be methamphetamine, a trooper testified.
Dinkins, according to his attorney Jack Dusthimer, asserted there was no probable cause for the van to be pulled over and the search of the van violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The judge, who had heard and seen recordings of the traffic stop, said she would review them again, but said that until she sees differently, she denied Dinkins’ motion to suppress the evidence.
Dinkins and his family maintain his innocence in the Breasia Terrell case. He has appealed the conviction.
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