‘I’m afraid’

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, April 23, 2014

“I’m afraid for my myself and my family” testified the sister of the victim in the case against a Brewton man charged with the attempted murder, kidnapping and sexually torturing his wife.
The testimony – along with details of Roger Dixon’s alleged crimes – were heard Thursday during a preliminary hearing before District Judge David Jordan.
Dixon, 54, appeared before the court in a red and white stripped jumpsuit, hands and feet shackled.

Dixon

Dixon

Dixon remained straight-faced during the proceedings as testimony given by family and friends said the couple had a long history of domestic violence, which they believed led up to the violent attack on Donna Kay Dixon. The couple had been married for four months before the March 20 incident that put Mrs. Dixon in the intensive care unit for seven days.
Teresa Raines, Mrs. Dixon’s sister, was on the stand for more than an hour.
Raines said that her sister was beaten so severely that she was on the verge of death when she arrived at Andalusia Regional Hospital for treatment.
“The doctor said it was a severe situation,” Raines said. “He said her kidneys were shutting down; that her lungs weren’t working right; that he didn’t know the extent of brain damage and that she was partially blind in her right eye.
“It was awful,” she said. “She’s an emotional wreck (now).”
Raines’ testimony was followed by a neighbor’s, another sister’s and the case’s investigating officer, Escambia County Sheriff’s Office investigator Kyle Ramsey.
Ramsey testified that Mrs. Dixon originally told police she was “jumped on” by two women who followed her to the couple’s Marietta Road home; however, Ramsey said officers did not believe her story. During a second interview with police, she revealed her husband was the one behind the attack, Ramsey said.
“Actually, she told a social worker at Andalusia Regional Hospital that she fabricated the story (of the two women),” Ramsey said. “We never took her first story as being credible.
“She told us that (Dixon) came home and accused her of cheating,” he said. “He told her that every lie was a hit with a flashlight. She said the more she pleaded, the more he’d hit her.
“She said he tried to shove pills down her throat and…used her shirt to choke her,” he said. “That he hit her with a belt and wooden cane and took her to the bedroom. She said he made her tear sheets to tie her to the bed and used a flashlight to sodomize her.”
Ramsey testified that police recovered the belt and the cane, as well as fibers from the bedposts, from the Dixon home and that photographic evidence substantiated the abuse.
“And when we went to arrest (Dixon), he said, ‘Why’d it take you so long to arrest me?’” Ramsey told the state.
In asking for a bond reduction, Dixon’s attorney Paul Hardin of Monroeville said, “To say (the case) is weak is putting it mildly. Everything against (Dixon) came from the victim. That has to be enough doubt to enter the court’s mind.”
However, Jordan ruled the case will now be presented to the grand jury, and that Dixon’s $500,000 bond would be reduced to $180,000.
As part of Dixon’s bond conditions, he is to not have any contact with the victim, the victim’s family or anyone who testified at the day’s proceedings.
No trial date has been set, and Dixon remains in the Escambia County Detention Center.

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