NBC’s ‘Dateline: Lone Star Obsession’ and ’20/20: This is Revenge’ chronicles the brutal slaying of a Lubbock, Texas, pathologist, Dr. Joseph Sonnier, who used to be discovered shot and stabbed to dying in his own residence in the summer season of 2012. In the investigations that followed, it got here to gentle that he was a sufferer of a murder-for-hire plot by his female friend’s jealous ex, Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon, a famend plastic surgeon from Amarillo. In 2015, he used to be in the end convicted for his crimes, however then his sentence was overturned. There were many ups and downs in this case over the years, so let’s find out exactly where Dr. Thomas is now, we could?
Who Is Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon?
Back in 2008, Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon used to be in his prime. He used to be the proprietor of Sensi Med Spa in Amarillo, Texas, a private apply, and was once also a beauty surgeon in the area. At his spa, he met Richelle Shetina, who came in for Botox injections, and the two was friends. In 2010, they started an affair, which Thomas’s spouse briefly came upon about, and his lifestyles began to crumble. She filed for divorce, and even though he and Richelle began relationship solely, their relationship used to be not anything wanting tumultuous.
Therefore, only some months after Thomas’ divorce, Richelle broke things off with him and was once made up our minds to construct a greater future. Moreover, in 2011, she met and were given acquainted with Joseph Sonnier while taking dance classes at D’Venue Dance Studio in Lubbock. Joseph and Richelle’s friendship soon turned romantic, and she later mentioned that Joseph confirmed her how real emotions impact a relationship. Thus, the two soon started relationship exclusively, a lot to Thomas’s exasperation. Naturally, Thomas was determined to get Richelle back, and he persuaded her in additional techniques than one in the months that followed. Yet, she met her for the final time in October 2011 simply to inform him that their dating was over.
Determined to make Joseph pay, Thomas employed his pal David Shepard to stalk the couple and pressure a wedge between them. David went on to create minor problems in their relationship or even had one in all Joseph’s ex-girlfriends contact him over textual content. However, the plan didn't figure out, and their relationship used to be getting more potent by means of the day. Hence, Thomas sooner or later took issues into his personal arms and paid David three silver bars and a field of costly Cuban cigars for killing Joseph, which the latter did on July 10, 2012. Just six days later, after a tip led the police to David, and he gave them a lengthy confession, Thomas used to be arrested on suspicion of capital homicide in connection to Joseph’s death. He used to be denied a bond and used to be held in jail till his case went to court.
Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon is Serving His Sentence Today
Thomas first went on trial in October of 2014, with the prosecution using David Shepard as their star witness. However, when the time came, David shocked everyone through changing his statements. In courtroom, he claimed that he acted alone and that Thomas was once no longer concerned with the homicide in any sense. The protection made use of this and said that Thomas had handiest asked David to stalk Joseph and take pictures of him with different ladies, insinuating that Thomas never wanted to bodily hurt his rival, just finish his courting with Richelle. In the end, the jury deadlocked, and the pass judgement on ordered a mistrial.
A yr later, in October of 2015, Thomas went to courtroom once once more. This time, handiest testimonies and David’s initial confession was used. The key witness right here used to be David’s daughter, who believed that her father lied to protect his pal. With this, in November, Dr. Thomas Dixon was once discovered to blame of 2 counts of capital homicide and was sentenced to existence in jail without parole. However, his protection workforce appealed the conviction on 50 grounds, in 3 classes: insufficient proof to convict, cell website knowledge download without a warrant, and the exclusion of the public from the court on 3 occasions. And, in December of 2018, the 7th Court of Appeals overturned Thomas’ conviction.
Following this, on January 17, 2019, Dr. Thomas Dixon was set free of prison on a $2 million bond pending his retrial. A month later, the prosecutors filed a petition to have his conviction reinstated. Thomas remained a free guy until April of 2020, when his bond was revoked, and an arrest warrant in opposition to him was issued. This came after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the lower court’s decision and ruled that despite the fact that Thomas used to be acquitted of the second fee of capital homicide, he remained convicted of the first rate of murder and would serve the remainder of his lifestyles sentence without parole. Hence, with parole and a retrial completely out of the image, the former doctor is lately incarcerated in the Randall County Jail in Lubbock County Detention Center in Lubbock, Texas.
ncG1vNJzZmismJqwqrrEppihp5yesG%2BvzqZmnapdqbWwucCsZKahk52upriMnaCxp55if3F%2Bj2g%3D