Attorneys for man accused of killing Breasia Terrell want trial delayed

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - The attorneys for a Davenport man charged in the shooting death of 10-year-old Breasia Terrell in 2020 are asking a judge to delay his trial.

Chad and Jennifer Frese, attorneys for Henry Dinkins, on Tuesday filed a motion seeking to continue the trial, which is slated to begin Oct. 24 in Linn County.

“While this case has been pending for some time, the fact remains that the undersigned have been on this case for five and one-half months,” the attorneys wrote in the motion.

“This is an extraordinarily labor-intensive case with many issues. [The] trial is estimated to take three weeks. No party would be prejudiced by a continuance in this matter.”

The motion will be heard by Judge Henry Latham on Oct. 7.

Dinkins, 50, of Davenport, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping in Terrell’s death.

According to court documents, Dinkins, on or around July 10, 2020, removed and confined Terrell from an apartment in the 2700 block of 53rd Street and fatally shot her.

In May 2021, police and prosecutors announced that charges had been filed against Dinkins after Terrell’s remains were found in a small body of water just north of DeWitt in March 2021.

He has been in custody since July 2020 on unrelated sex offender registry violation charges.

In March, Judge Henry Latham granted Dinkins’ request to move the trial out of Scott County due to pretrial publicity surrounding the case.

The judge also allowed his appointed attorneys, Miguel Puentes and Kyle Worby, to withdraw from the case.

Chad and Jennifer Frese, based in Marshalltown, were appointed to represent him. Dinkins’ is being housed in the Marshal County Jail to be closer to his attorneys.

In their motion, the attorneys wrote that pretrial discovery had not been conducted prior to their appointment to the case.

“Counsel have been diligent in preparing this matter for trial,” they wrote in the motion. “An investigator has been appointed to assist.”

The attorneys wrote that at the time of the filing of the formal charging document, prosecutors also filed “minutes of testimony” which contained two volumes of filings and several hundred pages of reports, statements, and other materials.

Dinkins, according to the motion, received his first “discovery disclosure” in early June.

“That disclosure was voluminous,” the attorneys wrote. “Law enforcement in this matter conducted an extensive investigation which included seizure of several dozen surveillance tapes from local businesses, traffic cameras and recorded interviews. A review of these items alone, even with the assistance of an investigator, have taken multiple hours.”

They further wrote, “Separately, Defendant has discovered volumes of information regarding the family of the victim of this crime which requires additional investigation.

“The specifics of the information is confidential and redissemination is prohibited without court order, however, defendant believes it is vital to the defense.”

In a resistance filed Tuesday, Scott County Attorney Mike Walton wrote that the delay would “significantly disrupt the orderly process of justice in this case and cause prejudice to the State.”

“The delay will almost certainly cause the necessity for a new prosecution team on a very complex case. The passing of time may affect the ability to locate witnesses as well as their memories of the event.”

Walton is retiring when his term expires in December.

He wrote in the resistance that although Dinkins’ previous attorneys did not request depositions of prosecutors’ witnesses, they did request and receive a large volume of documents, video and other material.

Walton further wrote that Terrell’s mother, Aishia Lankford, “waited nine months before learning the fate of her missing daughter, then learning her daughter had been murdered.

“Since the arrest of the defendant, she has waited over one year for justice and resolution of this case.”