Habitual offender sentenced to life in prison

• Habitual offender sentenced to life in prison

Attorney General Beau Biden announced today that one of his prosecutors secured a life sentence against a Dover man who has been arrested more than 70 times and charged with over 100 criminal offenses. The sentence of life in prison comes under the state’s “habitual offender” law for individuals convicted of three or more violent felonies.

Beau said that “career criminals do not belong in our communities, they belong behind bars where they cannot be a threat to public safety.” Beau and his team of prosecutors are committed to to ensuring that victims will receive the justice they deserve — and that criminals will be held accountable for their crimes.

For more, check out coverage from the Dover Post, reprinted below.

Career Dover criminal sentenced to life in prison

Dover, Del. — Attorney General Beau Biden announced Aug. 26 that Dover resident Dallas Drummond has been sentenced to life in prison as a “habitual offender.”

Following a two-day trial in Superior Court, a Kent County Jury last month convicted Drummond of burglary, theft by false pretense, theft and criminal trespass. After his conviction, prosecutors petitioned the court to declare Drummond a “habitual offender” and Superior Court Judge Robert B. Young did so Aug. 26, sentencing him to the mandatory term of life in prison without parole.

Drummond, 31, a registered sex offender, has been arrested more than 70 times and has been charged with more than 100 criminal offenses. He has failed to complete probation multiple times and has previously been convicted of rape, assault, burglary, conspiracy, harassment, endangering the welfare of a child, failure to register as a sex offender, criminal impersonation and other offenses.

The Attorney General’s office argued that Drummond is a substantial risk to the community and a danger to his family and to society.

“Career criminals do not belong in our communities, they belong behind bars where they cannot be a threat to public safety,” Biden said.

On Jan. 19, 2009, Drummond broke into the Smyrna apartment of his estranged wife, who had previously obtained a “no contact order” against him, and stole a computer, which he later sold. While free on bail awaiting his July trial for these offenses, he was arrested on April 14 and charged with committing a rape which occurred in April 2009. He has been in prison since his April 2010 arrest.

“The Department of Justice is committed to protecting the citizens of Delaware from violent habitual criminals like Dallas Drummond, and when appropriate we will seek to have these criminals incarcerated for life so that they can’t further victimize Delawareans,” said Deputy Attorney General R. David Favata, who prosecuted this case.

Under Delaware law, offenders convicted of three separate violent felonies can be declared a “habitual offender” and sentenced to the mandatory term of life in prison without parole. Prosecutors sought that declaration and today’s sentence based on Drummond’s previous convictions for rape (March 1998) and second-degree burglary (March 2000) and his July 2010 conviction for second-degree burglary.