Kaylee Michelle Alvarez

Neely Lejon Dinkins is a 33-year-old life long loser that has never had a plan to go anywhere in life. His criminal record consists of a drug charge in 1998, for that he was given three years probation. Later he was sentenced to five years in state prison for violating his probation twice on the drug charge. It wasn’t long after when Neely Dinkins was arrested for burglary in 2000. That charge ended up getting dropped because there wasn’t enough evidence to pin it on him. Everyone gets lucky sometimes but he sat in jail for 6 months waiting on the outcome of that case. He must of wised up or became better at committing crimes because he didn’t get into trouble again until 2006. In 2006 he pleaded no contest to one count of domestic violence. The domestic violence case got him 3 years of summary probation and ordered to pay $665 in restitution and court fees. His probation for that had just ended in July of 2009.

He sounds like an all around great guy right?  BTW, he’s produced several kids to, his baby’s mama/s must have really high standards.

People like Neely Lejon Dinkins are easy to figure out. They are angry at the world, self centered, conceded and have narcissistic personalities. They believe they are above the law, better than everyone else and the world owes them something simply for being born.

On September 11, 2009 Neely LejonDinkins being his usual delusional self decided to get behind the wheel of his Dodge Durango and turn it into a murder weapon. It was a beautiful evening around 8:30 so Alex and Yesenia Alvarez  were out enjoying it with their  2-year-old Oscar Alvarez and 1-year-old Kaylee Alvarez. Mommy and daddy were pulling them in their favorite little red plastic wagon and as they were crossing the street in a crosswalk Neely Lejon Dinkins hit the wagon and scooped them up into the wheel well. Like I mentioned before, Dinkins is self-centered and doesn’t care about anybody but his self. He’s not gonna let a small inconvenience like a couple of baby’s being under the SUV ruin his buzz.

He stopped….a block away,put his SUV in reverse  just long enough for Oscar to fall and roll out of the wheel well and into the street. Oscar rolled onto Ira Cohen’s feet and Ira picked him up.  Dinkins took off again and drove another mile taking back roads and driving erratically to try and avoid police and other good Samaritans that were trying to help. One person was still able to follow  him  to his driveway WITH Kaylee and the wagon still trapped under the SUV. The whole time people were screaming and begging for him to stop and he completely ignored them.

He got out of his vehicle , said “I think I hit a baby” and ran in the house like the little bitch boy he is. No shit dumb-ass, YOU THINK? During the time Dinkins was driving people were calling 911 and officer’s made it to his girlfriends  home just a few minutes after he got there.

Neely Lejon Dinkins was arrested right away. Accident investigator Sgt. Hans Kohnlein said Dinkins drove 1.3 miles to his driveway before stopping and Kaylee was still strapped into the wagon.

You would think once Dinkins sobered up he would have some kind of remorse right? No, not even a little bit. He went to his arraignment 3 days later and was angry and unsympathetic to the family. He didn’t care at all.The Alvarez family sat in the courtroom in shock.

His BAC level was .20, almost three times the legal limit. Dinkins was charged with second-degree murder, driving under the influence causing injury and/or death, driving under the influence, hit-and-run causing injury and/or death and driving on a suspended license. His bail was originally set at  $100,000 and then later changed to  $1.3 million. Dinkins tried to keep his back to the court so his face couldn’t be photographed but that didn’t work out very well for him.

Mr. Alvarez said “He dragged my little girl. I wanted to run, but I was in shock,” Alvarez said.”I know he’s a father and I feel bad for his family,” Alvarez said of Dinkins. “But I don’t understand why he didn’t stop. It’s like he didn’t have a heart.”

Baby Oscar had cuts and second-degree burns and had to have to surgery but did eventually recover fortunately. Baby Kaylee on the other hand didn’t make it.

Neely Dinkins pleaded not guilty on March 10, 2010. During the preliminary hearing Mrs. Alvarez broke down several times but was able to explain in great detail how her children suffered at the hands of this drunk.

Dr. Paul Gliniecki, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s investigator who performed the autopsy on Kaylee said the cause of death was from multiple blunt force trauma from being dragged by Neely Dinkins SUV. Baby Kaylee Alvarez had extensive injuries from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Her skin was torn away leaving only muscle tissue and bone in many areas and her skull was shattered as well said Dr. Gliniecki. Some of the injuries showed that little Kaylee’s heart was still beating as Dinkins was dragging her down the road. He said she was most likely alive throughout most of the dragging. He also testified that

“The most significant injury was to the top of the head … which was torn off,” Gliniecki said, adding that part of the child’s face, nose and ear and part of one hand were also ground away.”She was basically dragged across the road until those parts … were torn away,”.

As many other witnesses took the stand to testify against Neely Dinkins he showed absolutely no emotion, he was stone cold the whole time. He was most likely still mad that he’d been arrested like he had been previously at his arraignment.  The judge raised his bail amount once again to $1.49 million. His trial scheduled to start in July of 2010 however there’s been no news that is has begun or has been rescheduled.

These babies were with their mommy and daddy in what should have been a time to remember and make great memories to look back on and talk about. Kaylee took her very first steps and learned to walk the same day she was murdered. Oscar was Kaylee’s big brother, she would have looked up to him, followed him around and wanted to do everything he did. He probably would have been protective of her when she was old enough to date and threatened the boys that were interested in her like most big brothers do.

Neely Lejon Dinkins took that away from the Alvarez family because he was selfish. He dragged this baby for over a mile while she was still alive, she felt everything that was being done to her, he never once thought about the torture he was inflicting on Kaylee or Oscar. People like Dinkins are incapable of understanding. There is no legal punishment that will ever fit the crime that was commited here.

Kaylee Michelle’s memorial can be seen here http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42176037

Callie Long

I detest drunks. I won’t judge someone for drinking but I won’t hang around anyone that is drinking either. I grew up around a drunk so I like to think my very strong dislike for drunks comes from seeing it first hand and feeling like alcohol and drugs were always more important than me and my brothers were. There is something I hate more than drunks though, and that’s dumb asses that get behind the wheel while they’re drunk.

I don’t know how my brothers and I ever lived to adulthood. Our family drunk put us in the car nearly every day and drove. It had to be by the grace of God or Allah or Buddah or some deity that we never ended up in a wreck.

I remember being under the legal driving age by quiet a few years and driving this person out to the liquor store to get alcohol. Our county was dry so you had to drive about 10-15 miles to the closest store. It was always the family joke that he could drive better drunk than he could sober.

I learned a lot of little life lesson’s from this person’s negative example, so I am thankful for that. One of those lessons were that I do not drink at all, ever, and my husband doesn’t drink either.

I just can’t comprehend what possesses people to get behind the wheel after they’ve been drinking.

This is Callie Long, age 62. As you’ve probably figured out from my opening she likes to drink and drive. She graced the headlines with her presence on August 27, 2003 in Lubbock, TX. This case infuriates me and I think know it will you to. After 7 years the people of Lubbock are still pissed about Callie Long and the injustice that was done.

Callie, like many other drunk drivers and in spite of all evidence to the contrary, decided she was able to drive. She was driving down the  access road of the 3600 block of Loop 289 at 11:22 p.m. when she mowed down 29-year-old cyclist Brett Walrath, a former personal assistant to criminal DA Bill Sowder in her 1993 Lexus.

Most people would stop immediately and get out and try to assist the victim and call 911 for help. Callie isn’t most people, she’s a drunk and only thinks of herself. Callie continued on her little journey and Mr. Walrath was hit a second time by another vehicle.

Callie was stopped a few blocks later – fortunately someone must have witnessed her run down Mr. Walrath and called her license plates in. Guess what happened then? Yep, she failed a field sobriety test and was arrested on intoxication assault. She had a BAC of .13.

She was held in the Lubbock County Jail in lieu of $75,000.00 bond. Callie posted bond and was out the next day. See, Callie was a successful real estate agent, owning Callie Long Realty and was moderately wealthy so the bond was not an issue.

While Callie sat her self in jail  for the very short amount of time she was there, Mr. Walrath was laid up in ICU at UMC Hospital fighting for his life while his pregnant wife prayed he would pull through.

Mr. Walrath suffered closed-head trauma, brain stem damage, multiple fractures and was in a coma. He was taken in for surgery the next morning and was described as being “gravely injured”. Callie was indicted on November 24th, 2004 for intoxicated assault and failure to stop and render aid.

Brett was in a coma for almost 5 months before he succumbed to his injuries, in April of 2005. Accordingly, the charges against Callie Long were upgraded to intoxicated manslaughter with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault and failure to stop and render aid.

She was also found guilty on those charges. She faced a sentence of two to twenty years in prison. Two to twenty years isn’t much of a sentence in my opinion when your talking about murder but it’s at least something.

Now here’s where things get a bit confusing, so I’m going to let Lubbock Online tell it for me:

Long was convicted in April 2005 of intoxicated manslaughter and given a two-year sentence with the finding that a deadly weapon – her car – was used in the crime. That would have meant she would have served the full two years in prison.

However, an appeals court overturned the case because the jury had not been given the opportunity to convict her of the lesser charge of driving while intoxicated.

Her recent trial was for the offense of failing to stop and render aid. She was convicted but given a six-month term of probation. District Judge Brad Underwood added 60 days in jail as a term of probation or she would not have been required to serve any time in jail.

Sounds pretty routine, right? But wait, we’re not done yet. Long appealed her 2007 conviction for failing to stop and render aid. Prosecutor Hobson then announced his intent to refile the DUI manslaughter charges.

Back to the negotiations table!

Long on Thursday pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated, bringing an end to years of protracted legal battles between Long’s attorney, Danny Hurley, and Special Prosecutor Rod Hobson.

Part of the agreement that came with pleading to the Class B misdemeanor, Long agreed to drop the appeal of her 2007 failure to stop and render aid conviction and Hobson dismissed pending intoxication manslaughter and aggravated assault charges.

So Callie Long essentially served no time in prison for taking the life of Brett Walrath. She served sixty days for failure to render aid, and another ninety days for intoxication manslaughter. Five months of Callie Long’s life equals the sum total of Brett Walrath’s life.

Once again, the message is a life taken by a drunk driver isn’t worth as much as a life taken in any other manner. Once again, the lesson is that the consequences of killing a person while driving intoxicated are that there are no consequences. It’s sad, really.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?  Where is the justice for Brett and his family? How could our system fail? After all these years I still cannot help but to get furious when I think of Callie. I can feel my blood boil and my face turn red when I think of the miscarriage of justice in this case. I can not believe this bitch is driving around on the same streets that my family and friends are driving on and my son will soon be driving on. It makes me sick!

Brett paid with his life for Callie to have a night of fun. Brett was never able to hold his first born child – he ought to be in the 1st grade now. Callie has gone on with her life, she wakes up everyday, I’m sure her life hasn’t changed that much. Certainly not as much as Brett’s families lives have changed. It’s been said a hundred times Callie Long never showed any emotion or remorse for what she has done.

Most of the stories I write because I feel a closeness to or some kind of bond that I can’t always explain or put into words. I was born in Lubbock, TX and lived there for many years. Most of my family and friends still live there, my 2 teenage sons still live there with their dad.

Although it is my birthplace I’ve always stood by my belief that Lubbock is run by a ‘Good ol’ boys’ network’ It’s always been about who you know and how much money you have. This is a prime example and there’s many more cases like this in Lubbock. Our justice system failed, again.