California man freed from jail over ‘clerical error’ charged again in fentanyl, weapons case

A week after a Sacramento man was freed from jail after a “clerical error” led to a drug charge being dropped, a federal grand jury has indicted him on fentanyl and weapons charges.

Tio Dinero Sessoms, a 43-year-old former convict who fashioned a career as a consultant and “force for change” after serving a prison stint in connection with the 1999 slaying of a Sacramento minister, was charged with a count of distribution of fentanyl and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

U.S. Attorney Phil Talbert’s office said Sessoms sold about half a kilogram of fentanyl to law enforcement in downtown Sacramento on Aug. 28. Court filings say the sale took place at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel with undercover agents.

Sessoms originally was arrested in September in Pennsylvania and held on a criminal complaint.

But what prosecutors described as a “clerical error” led to Sessoms being held in custody in various jails for roughly 80 days until last week, when a federal judge in Sacramento ruled that prosecutors had missed a deadline to indict Sessoms and ordered the case dropped and Sessoms released.

The judge’s order allowed prosecutors to seek charges again, and the grand jury took care of that Thursday.

Sessoms’ assistant federal defender, Rachelle Barbour, said Sessoms is not in custody and was told by prosecutors he could arrive at the courthouse without first being arrested.

Sessoms is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon, according to court calendars.

He was one of three men convicted in the 1999 murder of Sacramento minister and gay rights activist Edward R. Sherriff, who was found dead in his mobile home on Elder Creek Road.

The minister had been bound with rope and telephone cord and stabbed 24 times.

But Sessoms’ conviction was overturned on appeal because after Sessoms was arrested and asked for an attorney a Sacramento police detective “convinced Sessoms that a lawyer would simply get in the way,” according to an appellate opinion.

Sessoms’ conviction was vacated and in 2017 he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and first-degree burglary, court records say.

This story was originally published December 15, 2023 at 9:26 AM.