Howard Hinkle

A SWAT team used flash grenades, flashing lights and a megaphone to roust Hinkle from his Donovan Road home in Wellsville at 6 a.m. Oct. 24. Hinkle, 47, who has a felony criminal record, hesitated before complying with the police warnings, but he finally opened the front door of his Allegany County residence. When FBI agents searched his property, they found 134 marijuana plants, 19 firearms, numerous rounds of ammunition and other evidence indicating a drug-production operation, according to a filing from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While providing few details at a court proceeding last week for Hinkle, prosecutors linked him to the investigation into Quinn’s death. “In investigating that death – and the investigation, I should note, remains ongoing – the FBI learned that Mr. Hinkle was one of the last people to interact with Crystal Quinn in the days leading to her death,” Chalbeck told U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer. “The FBI further learned from ... Simon Gogolack that Mr. Hinkle told Ms. Quinn that there was a bounty on her life.” Gogolack and Hinkle face narcotics and firearms charges stemming from the searches of their homes, and Gogolack also faces additional kidnapping and witness tampering charges.