Prelim set for Long Beach man accused of dragging 1-year-old girl to death

A preliminary hearing was scheduled Thursday for a 33-year-old Long Beach man accused of murder and driving drunk in the hit-and-run death of a 1-year-old girl. Neely Dinkins is accused of being drunk when he hit a red wagon that held one-year-old Kaylee Alvarez and her 2-year-old brother, Oscar. The children were being pulled by their parents, Alex and Yesenia Alvarez, across a crosswalk at Redondo Avenue and 10th Street at about 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 when the crash occurred. The parents and other passersby screamed for the single father to stop as he sped away with the wagon and the children jammed in the wheel well of a friend's SUV. Witnesses said he did stop for a moment a short distance away from the point of impact. That is when Oscar fell out of the wagon and was snatched to safety by bystanders. The boy underwent surgery for second-degree burns caused by the dragging but is expected to make a full recovery. Kaylee, however, was still buckled into the wagon and remained wedged inside of the wheel well of the SUV as Dinkins took off and wound his way to a residence on Wilton Street just off Redondo, witnesses said. Long Beach police estimate the baby was dragged more than a mile. Dinkins appeared briefly in the Long Beach Superior Court Thursday for a preliminary setting. He will return to the court next week, on Dec. 7, for the matter, court staff said.