News Release
From:    Office of District Attorney, 25th Judicial Circuit
Date:     10/18/2006
Re:        State of Alabama vs. Jimmy Wayne Dickinson

For Immediate Release:

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Jimmy Wayne Dickinson (age 50) of Lynn was convicted in the Circuit Court of Winston County of one (1) count of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree and one (1) count of Sodomy in the First Degree.  The verdicts came at the end of a two-day jury trial before Circuit Judge John Bentley.  Jury deliberations lasted approximately fifty (50) minutes.

The testimony during the trial showed that in January of 2005, a relative of a then six-year-old female child informed officials at the child’s school that she had reason to believe that the child had been sexually molested by two males. After being contacted by school officials, an investigation was conducted by the Winston County Department of Human Resources, which was assisted by the Winston County Sheriff’s Department. The investigation revealed that the child had been molested by Dickinson on at least one occasion.  It was also revealed that other female relatives of Dickinson had been molested by him over a period spanning approximately 30 years.  Dickinson was indicted by a Winston County grand jury in May of 2005 and charged with the two offenses for which he was convicted.  The sexual abuse charge involved the child who first reported the abuse, and the sodomy charge involved a female who was eleven years of age at the time the offense occurred.

The sentencing for Dickinson was postponed until a pre-sentence investigation has been conducted.  Dickinson faces a possible sentence of 1 to 10 years on the sexual abuse conviction and 10 years to 99 years or life on the first degree sodomy conviction.  Dickinson was ordered into immediate custody pending his sentencing hearing.

Deputy District Attorney Neal Cook, who prosecuted Dickinson, had the following comment following the jury’s verdicts:  “I thank the jury for rendering justice for the victims in this case.  The conviction of Mr. Dickinson and that of his brother bring to a close many years of injustice that have been inflicted on the many victims of their heinous conduct.  I hope that these convictions will send a clear messages to any child molesters and would-be child molesters that their actions might be done in secret but justice has a searching eye.  You will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will be convicted.”

Dickinson’s brother, James Marcus “Mark” Dickinson was convicted earlier this year on thirteen (13) counts of sexual molestation involving the same victims and two others.  He was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 130 years.