12:15pm | A Long Beach man convicted earlier this year of felony drunk driving and second-degree murder in the hit-and-run dragging death of a 13-month-old girl will spend at least the next 36 years behind bars.

Long Beach Superior Court Judge Tomson T. Ong handed down the sentence Tuesday morning.

Neely Lejon Dinkins’ mandatory 15-years-to-life sentence was doubled to 30 after the court identified and found true a prior strike on his record. The judge tacked on another six years and eight months for the other charges he was convicted of on Feb. 2.

Prosecutors said it will be 36 years before Dinkins is eligible for parole.

Dinkins, 35, was driving under the influence of alcohol on Sept. 11, 2009, when his SUV collided into the plastic wagon carrying 13-month-old Kaylee Alvarez and her 2-year-old brother, Oscar, as their parents pulled them across 10th Street  at Redondo Avenue in a marked crosswalk.

Dinkins drove over the wagon, knocking both parents to the ground. The wagon became lodged under the SUV, and as Dinkins sped away, the children’s mother and several witnesses on the street screamed at him to stop.

Dinkins stopped about a half block away, at which time Oscar tumbled out of the wagon. A passerby who had witnessed the incident scooped up the badly injured boy and whisked him to safety.

Kaylee, however, was strapped into the wagon, which by then had become lodged in the wheel well of the SUV.

Dinkins sped off once more, dragging the 13-month-old for a mile and a half before stopping at his girlfriend’s home, police testified during the trial. Witnesses said they saw sparks flying and heard what sounded like thunder as the wagon and child were pulled against the pavement.

Upon his arrest at the girlfriend’s home about an hour later, his blood alcohol level registered at .20, police  had testified.