MASON CITY — A convicted local drunk driver and child endangerer who spent the summer wanted on a statewide warrant ran out of luck this week as she tooled around behind the wheel with no license, illegal tint, fake registration, and an apparent huge sense of entitlement, and is now in a cold, cold Mason City jail cell after a neighboring deputy put a stop to the games.
Precious Nicole Wimberly (pictured at top), 34, was booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail at 5:36 a.m. on September 15. Court records say she was arrested in Bremer County and served with a Cerro Gordo County bench warrant that had been hanging over her since May 12.
For more than four months, the warrant remained outstanding and Wimberly’s probation-revocation case could not move forward. A June court order put further proceedings on hold until authorities could locate and arrest her.
The jail now lists Wimberly as being held for an alleged probation violation and failure to appear. Her bond is set at $2,000 cash only.
Traffic stop ends months of freedom
Wimberly’s time beyond the court’s reach apparently ended after another encounter on a Northern Iowa roadway.
Bremer County court records show she received three citations tied to an alleged September 13 traffic stop:
- Driving without a valid license
- Fraudulent use of registration
- Having an illegally darkened window or windshield
The cases were filed September 15, the same day Wimberly was booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail. No dispositions have been entered on the new citations.
The traffic stop resembles another recent case in which a wanted Northern Iowa woman was nabbed after spending months facing outstanding warrants.
Drunk driving and child-endangerment convictions
Wimberly’s current predicament reaches back to a July 7, 2024 incident that produced six criminal charges in Cerro Gordo County.
She ultimately pleaded guilty on February 14, 2025, to operating while intoxicated, first offense, and two counts of child endangerment.
Two additional child-endangerment charges and a marijuana possession charge were dismissed five days later under the negotiated plea arrangement.
Judge Karen Salic sentenced Wimberly to two years in prison on one child-endangerment conviction but suspended the prison term and placed her on probation for one year.
On the second child-endangerment conviction, Wimberly received a 365-day jail sentence with 355 days suspended, leaving 10 days to serve.
The OWI conviction brought another two days in jail, a $1,250 fine and one year of probation.
Drunk-driving and child-endangerment cases continue to emerge across the region. NIT recently reported on a Northern Iowa woman accused of OWI, child endangerment and assault.
NIT also reported on a Mason City woman accused of crashing into a mailbox while driving drunk with a child inside her SUV.
Appeal crashes and burns
Wimberly tried to challenge her convictions, but the effort never got off the ground.
She claimed the district court failed to adequately explain the consequences of her guilty plea. She also argued that the additional charges should have been dismissed unconditionally instead of remaining vulnerable to reinstatement if she breached the plea agreement.
The Iowa Court of Appeals dismissed Wimberly’s appeal on March 11, 2026.
The court found that Wimberly failed to file the required motion challenging her guilty plea. She also failed to claim that she would have rejected the plea deal without the alleged defects and did not separately appeal the order conditionally dismissing the remaining charges.
The appellate court went a step further, declaring that her challenge to the conditional dismissals had no viable basis. Iowa law allows prosecutors to pursue dismissed charges when a defendant materially breaches a plea agreement.
Statewide warrant issued
A probation-violation report was filed May 7, less than two months after Wimberly’s failed appeal.
Probation-revocation proceedings followed, and Judge Salic issued a statewide bench warrant May 12 with bond set at $2,000 cash only.
Court correspondence mailed to Wimberly was returned in April. By June, the court acknowledged that the case could not proceed until she was arrested.
The warrant remained active throughout the summer before authorities finally caught up with Wimberly in Bremer County.
NIT recently covered a similar case involving another convicted child-endangerment defendant jailed on a Cerro Gordo County probation warrant after previously receiving a suspended prison sentence.
Suspended prison term now at risk
The court appointed a public defender to represent Wimberly following her return to jail.
A bond-review hearing is scheduled for October 12 at 2:45 p.m. Her probation-revocation hearing is scheduled for October 26 at 2:30 p.m.
If the court determines that Wimberly violated probation, the judge could revoke the leniency she previously received and order her to serve some or all of the suspended two-year prison sentence.
The new traffic citations and probation allegations remain pending. Wimberly is presumed innocent of those allegations unless proven otherwise. Her previous OWI and child-endangerment convictions are established court dispositions.