Adrian man sentenced to minimum of 45 years in prison for 2019 gang-related murder

ADRIAN — An Adrian man will serve a minimum of 45 years in prison for his role in ordering the murder of a Weston man in January 2019.

Count Tereso the Almighty Trevino, 40, who legally changed his name from Terry Lynn Trevino several years ago, was sentenced Friday by Lenawee County Circuit Judge Michael R. Olsaver to serve 45-85 years in prison. A jury in April found Trevino guilty of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder in the shooting death of Christopher Dickerson, 27, of Weston, which occurred Jan. 21, 2019, in a wooded field near Morenci.

Testimony during the trial showed Trevino was considered the leader of Adrian’s Latin Counts gang, which was described by the Lenawee County Prosecutor’s Office as a violent street gang dealing in drug sales, break-ins, robberies and other crimes.

More: Juries convict one defendant, deadlock on other in gang-related murder trial

While Trevino is not accused of pulling the trigger and killing Dickerson, he was found guilty of being the man who orchestrated Dickerson’s death through conversations that took place inside the Lenawee County Jail.

The jury in April deadlocked on the same charges against Andrew Erin Cecil, 31, of Adrian and a mistrial was declared. A new trial for Cecil is scheduled to begin Oct. 31.

The two men who have accused each other of shooting Dickerson, Austin Richardson and David Taylor, are jailed in relation to Dickerson’s murder and other crimes. Richardson has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing. Part of his plea deal was to testify truthfully in the other defendants' trials.

Trevino was also found guilty of solicitation of murder and gang membership felonies. Olsaver ordered that Trevino will serve 37 1/2 years to 65 years for the solicitation of murder conviction and 15 years to 26 years and 9 months for the gang membership conviction.

He will receive credit for 435 days already served in jail and must pay $272 in state costs, $130 in crime victims rights fees and restitution in the amount of $2,490.40 paid to Tracy Dickerson, Chris Dickerson’s mother.

The sentences will be concurrent as opposed to consecutive. Olsaver said the sentences for the murder and conspiracy charges accomplished the goal of ensuring Trevino stays in prison for as long as possible. A life sentence would have given Trevino the possibility of being paroled after 25 years, but under Olsaver's sentence he'll serve a minimum of 45 years. The prosecution, led by Lenawee County Prosecutor Jackie Wyse and Assistant Prosecutor Douglas Hartung, advocated for consecutive sentences.

The hit put on Dickerson, Olsaver summarized, was conspired by Trevino and other inmates inside the Lenawee County Jail and was carried out for the purpose of preventing Dickerson from testifying in a criminal trial that involved members of the Latin Counts gang.

Trevino has 11 prior felonies and five prior misdemeanors with several of those felonies involving shootings, Olsaver said. Even though it appears nobody was hurt in those shootings, it does indicate a lack of respect and a disregard for human life, Olsaver said.

He went on to say Trevino’s history of felonies and criminal activity establishes him as a “dangerous person who commits violent crimes when he is free.”

“(Chris Dickerson) was killed and left for dead in a way that I can’t imagine the pain the family and friends of Mr. Dickerson must feel,” he said. “I don’t think any of us can imagine having a loved one put through that.”

Conversations about conspiring to harm or kill Dickerson so that he could not testify began in the jail in the summer of 2018 and continued through the day Dickerson was killed in January 2019. Trevino was released from the Lenawee County Jail Nov. 30, 2018. Additional conversations about Dickerson continued outside of the jail.

Dickerson’s body was recovered from the wooded field Feb. 23, 2019. It was frozen solid and took three days to completely thaw before an autopsy could be performed. Dickerson was shot a total of four times.

Tracy Dickerson spoke for nearly 15 minutes during Friday’s sentencing. It’s been 1,606 days since her son was murdered, she said.

“Not a single day goes by that I don’t miss my son immensely,” she said, while fighting through tears. “Most nights I find myself crying myself to sleep. That’s if I sleep at all. These past 4 1/2 years have been excruciating, to say the least.”

She thanked law enforcement officials and members of the prosecutor's office and the victims' rights services for “getting justice for my son,” she said, and for spending thousands of hours on the case.

Tracy spent some time talking about her son, saying he loved football. He played football throughout his school years and played for the 2010 Hudson High School team in the state championship game at Ford Field in Detroit.

Another of his passions was singing, she said.

Chris and his three brothers, Shawn, William and Jacob Goll, were very close and had a bond like no other, she added.

“This is the son I knew and lost when these monsters planned and murdered my son,” she said. “They didn’t just murder my son; they murdered the life I once lived. My new life is filled with what ifs, regrets and the guilt is almost unbearable.”

Tracy called Trevino “cold-blooded.” She also said she could not forgive him for what had happened to her son, as she said she would be living a lie if she did.

“Because of what they did to my son and leaving him out there in the woods, I wasn’t able to see my son and tell him goodbye. Your honor, I had to say goodbye to a casket,” she said.

Trevino did not speak much during the sentencing, besides clarifying some items with Olsaver and Wyse as part of the presentence investigation report. His attorney, special public defender Jim Daly, said the defense was aiming for the low end of the sentencing guidelines.

“Mr. Trevino is choosing not to say anything today,” Daly said. “I would point out to the court that Mr. Trevino has maintained from the very beginning that he was innocent of this charge, and he has pled not guilty. He has not changed his position on that.”

Wyse and Hartung said Dickerson’s death was unnecessary.

“Mr. Dickerson was taken from his family and his friends, and I do believe the whole community felt that,” Wyse said.

The prosecution requested the highest level of punishment for Trevino as a means to send a message to the community that such violence — murder for hire and conspiracy of murder — would not be tolerated, and that the law must be abided. The probation department recommended a sentencing for Trevino of 40-65 years, Hartung said.

“The areas that we can help, we do help,” Hartung said of the prosecutor's office. “Every victim who comes forward, every witness who comes forward we do everything we can to help and protect them.”

“I can’t tell you the number of times that our office has been faced with witnesses who are terrified to come forward, witnesses who are terrified to give a statement not only to the police but to come to court and testify. I can’t tell the court how many times I have been asked, ‘How can I be assured that I won’t be the next Chris Dickerson,’” Wyse said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian man sentenced to prison for 2019 gang murder