A July trial date was tentatively set Wednesday for a 34-year-old Long Beach man accused of murder and drunken driving in
the hit-and-run dragging death of a 1-year-old girl pleaded.
Neely Lejon Dinkins is charged with not only the dragging death of 1-year-old Kaylee Alvarez in September, but also the near killing of Kaylee's brother, 2-year-old Oscar.
He is accused of dragging Kaylee over a mile as her parents and passers-by screamed for him to stop. The baby and her toddler brother were being pulled across Redondo Avenue at 10th Street in a red wagon by their parents about 8:30 p.m. Sept. 11.
Dinkins' blood alcohol level measured nearly three times the legal limit at the time of his arrest.
Witnesses said a Dodge Durango driven by Dinkins slammed into the red plastic wagon and dragged the two children about a block before Dinkins' was stopped by Ira Cohen, a good Samaritan. When the SUV stopped, Oscar rolled out from under the vehicle landing at Cohen's feet, Cohen testified. He snatched Oscar to safety as Dinkins sped off a second time, with Kaylee still buckled inside the wagon, witnesses said.
Another good Samaritan followed the SUV as Dinkins wound his way around the neighborhood, dragging the baby for more than a mile before he stopped in the driveway of his girlfriend's home on Wilton Street, just off Redondo. Throughout the incident, calls flooded the Long Beach Police Department's 911 center and officers swarmed the area, searching for the SUV.
Dinkins, a single father, is charged with five felony counts including murder, gross vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence causing injury or death to both Kaylee and Oscar and fleeing the scene of the accident. An allegation of inflicting great bodily injury applies to a number of the counts and the defendant also has one strike on his record, all of which factored into his bail, set at $1.49 million last year.
Dinkins' trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday at the Long Beach Superior Court. The new trial date was set for July 1 in Dept. 9.
The accused remains in the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles in lieu of bail.
Neely Lejon Dinkins is charged with not only the dragging death of 1-year-old Kaylee Alvarez in September, but also the near killing of Kaylee's brother, 2-year-old Oscar.
He is accused of dragging Kaylee over a mile as her parents and passers-by screamed for him to stop. The baby and her toddler brother were being pulled across Redondo Avenue at 10th Street in a red wagon by their parents about 8:30 p.m. Sept. 11.
Dinkins' blood alcohol level measured nearly three times the legal limit at the time of his arrest.
Witnesses said a Dodge Durango driven by Dinkins slammed into the red plastic wagon and dragged the two children about a block before Dinkins' was stopped by Ira Cohen, a good Samaritan. When the SUV stopped, Oscar rolled out from under the vehicle landing at Cohen's feet, Cohen testified. He snatched Oscar to safety as Dinkins sped off a second time, with Kaylee still buckled inside the wagon, witnesses said.
Another good Samaritan followed the SUV as Dinkins wound his way around the neighborhood, dragging the baby for more than a mile before he stopped in the driveway of his girlfriend's home on Wilton Street, just off Redondo. Throughout the incident, calls flooded the Long Beach Police Department's 911 center and officers swarmed the area, searching for the SUV.
Dinkins, a single father, is charged with five felony counts including murder, gross vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence causing injury or death to both Kaylee and Oscar and fleeing the scene of the accident. An allegation of inflicting great bodily injury applies to a number of the counts and the defendant also has one strike on his record, all of which factored into his bail, set at $1.49 million last year.
Dinkins' trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday at the Long Beach Superior Court. The new trial date was set for July 1 in Dept. 9.
The accused remains in the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles in lieu of bail.
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