The mother of a 10 year old Davenport girl who was killed three years ago says she will never forgive the man convicted of her daughter’s murder.
Breasia Terrell was reported missing after a sleepover with her half-brother at his father’s home. Henry Dinkins was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison yesterday after Aishia Lankford, the girl’s mother, spoke in court.
“I thought hearing you get a life sentence with no possibility of parole would help me sleep at night and it just doesn’t because she didn’t have to be gunned down like that nor left like that, out there like she was just trash,” Lankford said. “She didn’t deserve that.”
Terrell’s body was found in a pond near DeWitt. Her brother testified that he saw Dinkins shoot the girl. Lankford said her soul is crushed and her son is traumatized.
“I watched my youngest baby become unrecognizable at times with the amount of anger he sits and holds from this trauma you put him through,” Lankford said. “We are suffering from so much, with anxiety and depression at the top of our list.”
Lankford addressed Dinkins directly, asking him about the night her daughter was kidnapped and murdered. “You didn’t just take away my baby’s life. You took away everything from me — my family’s sense of security, laughs, health and potential,” she said, “potential for Breasia to be someone’s wife, potential to be a mother, a college graduate, prom, everything.”
Dinkins spoke for 23 minutes in court, claiming he had been “bamboozled” by his lawyers and accusing the judge of having it out for him. Dinkins was convicted of first degree murder and first degree kidnapping last month. WQAD TV broadcast a livestream of yesterday’s sentencing hearing online.