GUILTY TX - Dr. Joseph Sonnier, 57, slain in contract killing, Lubbock, 10 July 2012

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http://lubbockonline.com/filed-onli...nnier-murder-hire-case-set-begin#.VEwNIigqWAA

The trial of Dr. Thomas Dixon is set for Monday at the 140th District Court...

Lubbock police investigators believed Dixon was jealous of Sonnier. It was Shepard’s roommate who directed police to him. Paul Reynold’s told investigators that, after a failed suicide attempt, Shepard admitted to killing Sonnier.

During an evidentiary hearing in June Det. Ylanda Pena said Reynolds, who knew Shepard for more than 30 years, had information about the homicide that was not released to the public such as the fact that the killer did not break the window used to enter Sonnier’s home and that a Gatorade bottle investigators found at the scene was used as a silencer for a gun.
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http://lubbockonline.com/filed-onli...ss-sonnier-homicide-was-involved#.VFJSgCgqWAA

Thomas Dixon’s defense attorneys continued pursuing their theory Wednesday that the main witness in Joseph Sonnier III’s homicide case was a co-conspirator in the slaying...

He asked Johnson why Paul Reynolds, who identified Dixon and Shepard as suspects in the case, was never investigated. Reynolds was Shepard’s longtime friend and roommate at the time.

Reynolds called police four days after the investigation into Sonnier’s killing began and said Shepard killed Sonnier on Dixon’s request. A recording of the call was played in court.
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http://lubbockonline.com/filed-onli...resented-dixon-murder-hire-trial#.VFJ-CygqWAA

Lubbock police Cpl. Dustin Gay said Thursday he saw a medical examiner remove four bullets and two bullet fragments from Dr. Joseph Sonnier during an autopsy.

Gay was among the Lubbock Police Department officers who testified in the capital murder trial of Dr. Thomas Dixon as it entered its fourth day...

Det. Garland Timms returned to the witness stand and presented a smart phone, a thumb drive, and a Potter County Sheriff’s badge police collected from Shepard’s apartment.
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http://www.kcbd.com/story/27175382/...s-text-message-evidence-in-dixon-murder-trial

Proceedings got off to a fiery start when the defense questioned text messages being read to the jury that neither they nor the judge had the opportunity to review. That came after Judge Jim Bon Darnell allowed text messages sent between Shepard and Dixon to be admitted as evidence.

Judge Darnell ultimately ruled the text messages that were questioned by the jury be deleted and the jury not consider them.

At that point, the defense asked for a mistrial which Judge Darnell overruled.
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http://lubbockonline.com/crime-and-...-agrees-plan-was-sick-and-creepy#.VGY5lIfZIWc

Dixon said he only wanted to find evidence of Sonnier’s philandering.

“I didn’t want Joseph Sonnier to die,” he said, admitting his plan to spy on Sonnier was stupid, sick, and creepy.

Dixon, a 50-year-old Amarillo plastic surgeon, also admitted to lying to Lubbock police about knowing Sonnier when they came to him at his Amarillo home the night of Sonnier’s death.
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http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2015-05-22/new-trial-date-set-dixon-capital-murder-case

Lubbock Judge Jim Bob Darnell has ordered a new trial date for an Amarillo plastic surgeon accused of paying for the killing of a Lubbock doctor in 2012.

In an order Darnell signed Thursday, a jury trial is set for 9 a.m. Oct. 12 for the capital murder case of Thomas Dixon in the 140th District Court...

A three-week trial in Dixon’s case ended Nov. 20 with Darnell declaring a mistrial after jurors did not agree on a verdict.
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Feature article from May:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/a-deadly-dance/

In early July, the two friends took a few days off from their surveillance of Sonnier. On Independence Day, Shepard watched fireworks in Amarillo from the balcony of his apartment, and on July 6, he and Dixon took their kids to the Range Rider Rodeo. A day or two later, Shepard brought his girls over to swim in Dixon’s pool. Then, on July 9, Dixon texted Shepard, “Need it done ASAP.” Shepard wrote back that he would be in Lubbock the next day. “Yay,” Dixon replied. He spent most of July 10 in surgery, but he had time to send Shepard a final text during the lunch hour that read, “Put it on em.”

“On target,” Shepard texted back at 4:53 p.m.

On the morning of July 11, Sonnier’s colleagues began to wonder why he had not shown up for work. They tried to reach him by phone, and finally they grew so concerned that one of them drove to his house. His body was discovered in the garage, and it was a grisly scene. He had been shot five times and stabbed eleven. Two of the stab wounds had struck his heart, and two others had punctured his lungs. An official with the police department called it “the most gruesome, high-profile murder Lubbock has ever seen.”
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Earlier this month:

http://www.kcbd.com/story/30703708/...ld-you-be-so-stupid-you-had-a-successful-life

A Lubbock county jury last month convicted Dixon of capital murder for hiring David Shepard to kill Dr. Joseph Sonnier, in July of 2012. He was then sentenced to life in prison without parole.
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The woman at the center of a love triangle murder-for-hire case involving two Texas doctors that left one dead and the other behind bars is speaking out for the first time.

Richelle Shetina, 53, was dating pathologist Dr. Joseph Sonnier in 2012 when he was shot and stabbed to death in his Lubbock, Texas, home. Authorities later established that his murder was tied to Shetina’s ex-boyfriend, an Amarillo, Texas-based plastic surgeon named Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon.

“Evil followed me straight to Joseph's door,” Shetina told ABC News’ “20/20” in an exclusive interview.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-center-texas-doctors-love-triangle-murder-hire/story?id=36108079
 
David Shepard, the hitman involved in a twisted Texas doctor's murder-for-hire love triangle case, claims he and the doctor who ordered the hit never intended for the target to die.

"I think the real story is more interesting," Shepard told ABC News' "20/20." "Because it's such a tragedy.

(...)

Shepard says the defense's argument is the real story. Shepard told "20/20" that Dixon wanted to keep tabs on his ex-girlfriend and asked Shepard to try to take photos of Sonnier with another woman, which Shepard said he agreed to do.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/hitman-involved-texas-doctors-murder-hire-love-triangle/story?id=40801313
 
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Amarillo ordered that doctor Thomas Michael Dixon will get a new trial -- finding the judgment of the trial court in Lubbock should be reversed. The ruling is still subject to review by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.

Court of Appeals Orders New Trial for Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon
 
Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon Now: Where is Richelle Shetina's Ex Today? Is He in Jail?

on January 17, 2019, Dr. Thomas Dixon was let out of jail 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 man until April of 2020 when his bond was revoked, and an arrest warrant against him was issued. This came after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the lower court’s decision and ruled that Thomas’ conviction could stand. This also meant that there would not be a retrial. As per the last reports, the former doctor is currently incarcerated in the Randall County Jail in Lubbock County Detention Center for capital murder.
 
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