At 9:05 a.m. Friday, Sept. 15, a judge will announce the verdict in the case of a man accused in the death of a 10-year-old girl, according to a court document.
The bench trial of 51-year-old Henry Dinkins, who faces charges of murder and kidnapping in connection with the death of 10-year-old Breasia Terrell, ended Aug. 29 on its 14th day in Scott County Court.
Judge Henry Latham presided. In a bench trial, the judge makes the decisions. In a jury trial, the jurors make the decisions. On Wednesday, Latham filed a court document with the time of the verdict hearing.
sentencing-orderDownloadDinkins and his family maintain that he is innocent.
On the last day of the trial, Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham discussed the family dynamics, the relationship between Breasia’s mother and Dinkins and then the events of the night before the day Breasia was reported missing on June 10, 2020.
During the trial, witnesses testified that Dinkins’ son D. L. and D. L.’s half-sister Breasia went with Dinkins to spend the night in a Davenport apartment with Dinkins’s then-girlfriend, Andrea Culberson.
Culberson testified she got up to go to the bathroom and saw that Dinkins and Breasia were gone in the wee hours of the night. Culberson said she looked out a window and saw Breasia standing by DInkins’ car at 3:30 a.m.
The girl was reported missing the morning of June 10, 2020. Breasia’s body was discovered in March 2021 near a farm pond in DeWitt. She had been shot, investigators testified.
Although Cunningham accused Dinkins of sexually assaulting Breasia and then killing her, Chad Frese, Dinkins’ attorney, called what the state presented “speculation.” “There’s not one piece of physical evidence that can say Henry Dinkins touched this girl,” he said.
At the end of the trial, Latham said he would take the matter under advisement and return with a verdict as soon as he could. He had 60 days from the end of the trial to make a ruling.
