Manassas Woman Pleads Guilty to Illegally Selling Firearms

A Manassas woman pleaded guilty Friday to purchasing 31 handguns with the intent to sell them for profit because she was unemployed.

Kimberly Yvette Dinkins, 44, pleaded guilty to dealing firearms without a licenses, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in a press release issued Friday.

U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton accepted her plea. Sentencing is scheduled for May 3 and she could face up to five years in prison. 

Federal authorities said she purchased 31 firearms on three consecutive weekends beginning on Nov. 17 and ending on Dec. 1, 2012.

Thirteen were purchased at a gun show in Chantilly, nine at a gun show in Richmond and another nine at a gun show in Hampton.

Dinkins was not a federally licensed dealer of firearms, so selling the firearms is illegal, prosecutors said. 

The investigation into the crime is being conducted by Alcohol Tobacco and Explosives (ATF) agents with the Washington Field Division. 

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Rush Atkinson, Virginia Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant U. S. Attorney Marc J. Birnbaum are prosecuting the case on behalf of the U.S.

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