Sex offender suspected of kidnapping, killing 10-year-old Iowa girl after being released from prison early...WTF?

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Iowa granted an early release from prison to a repeat offender just months before he allegedly kidnapped and killed a 10-year-old girl, according to parole documents released Tuesday.

The Iowa Board of Parole granted Henry Dinkins parole from a Davenport minimum-security residential facility in March 2020, determining he was “able and willing to fulfill the obligations of a law abiding citizen.”

“There is a reasonable probability that you can be released without detriment to the community or yourself,” according to the parole order signed by the board’s chair, Helen Miller, that The Associated Press obtained under the open records law.

Less than four months after his parole, Dinkins, a registered sex offender with a history of violent and reckless behavior, allegedly kidnapped Breasia Terrell from a Davenport apartment complex, shot her to death and hid her body in rural eastern Iowa.

At the time he was granted parole, Dinkins, 48, was awaiting trial on felony charges in Illinois of possession of methamphetamine and amphetamine with intent to deliver stemming from an April 2019 traffic stop. It’s unclear whether Iowa authorities took that into consideration.

Breasia was the half sister of Dinkins’ son, and investigators say both children were staying the night with him at an apartment where he was living with a girlfriend. The girl’s July disappearance prompted a monthslong search that ended in March when two people fishing near DeWitt discovered her remains in a pond.

Dinkins is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping, each of which carry a possible life term. A public defender representing him didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment. Dinkins is set to be arraigned next month.

Iowa Board of Parole records detail Dinkins’ criminal history and some leniency he received along the way, even as he committed crime after crime.

He had been in and out of prison and correctional programs since 1990, when he was convicted of third-degree sexual abuse of a child when he was 17 and required to register as a sex offender. He’d been arrested and cited dozens of times, on charges that include violating sex offender registry requirements, assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, domestic violence, drug possession, theft and eluding. A 2009 murder charge was dropped after police said he was a witness, not the killer.



This beast needed the death penalty at least 20 years ago!

Early release my ass!