Wichita man sentenced in connection with fentanyl drug trafficking network
A 38-year-old Wichita man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in facilitating the sale of fentanyl in connection with a larger drug trafficking network.
Dashea Henderson, also known as “Baby Cherry,” was arrested in 2024 for using a cell phone to negotiate the pricing for bulk amounts of fentanyl pills, court documents described.
The same document also says Henderson did so with the intention to “enhance and further” his career in drug trafficking.
In a series of messages sent via Snapchat dated between February and August of 2021, Henderson solicited the recipient to sell fentanyl pills that he had and negotiated the pricing for bulk amounts of them. He was arrested in 2024 and pleaded guilty to four counts of using a communication facility to facilitate drug trafficking.
“There is no doubt the Defendant committed the crimes charged in the indictment,” Henderson’s sentencing memorandum read. “The Defendant has accepted responsibility by pleading guilty. The Defendant knows, and most importantly accepts, that now is the time he must be punished for his criminal actions.”
Henderson’s attorney, Branden Smith, asked the judge to consider his client’s upbringing, which was marred by instability, addiction, poverty and violence, when it came time to sentence the 38-year-old man.
“The sheer sadness that pervades Dashea’s life from his birth to current day is immense,” he wrote in Henderson’s sentencing memorandum. “. . . For Dashea Henderson, the best of times have never been, and the worst of times always have.”
Violence, his attorney said, was part of his day-to-day reality, and that didn’t stop once he entered the justice system at 11 years old.
“From age fifteen onward, Dashea spent most of his life in juvenile or adult custody - roughly fifteen years in total, about seventy percent of his life,” Smith wrote.
While between incarcerations, Henderson became a father to five children and, Smith wrote, has expressed “a desire to be the kind of father he never had — present, dependable, and caring.”
In September 2025, Henderson entered a plea agreement. This month, he was sentenced to 156 months, or 13 years, in prison.
