The man involved in a shooting at Marjorie Gardens was sentenced to prison on Wednesday but will get to spend Christmas with his family.
Brandon Dixon pleaded guilty to wanton endangerment involving a firearm in September. He was sentenced to serve one to five years in prison with 51 days credit for time served before he posted bond, but Judge Phillip Gaujot said Dixon didn’t have to report to North Central Regional Jail until 5 p.m. on Dec. 26.
Dixon was in court with his toddler-aged son because there was no one else to watch him, Defense Attorney Ryan Umina said.
The shooting happened in Marjorie Gardens in June 2018.
Umina said Dixon was called outside by two “very serious” criminals who are well-known to law enforcement over $60 he owed them for weed. Once outside, one of them tried to shoot Dixon “point blank” in the face but Dixon pushed the gun away and burned his hand on the barrel.
Calling the police would have no value to Dixon, as evidenced by the state’s failure to produce a single witness against the men who tried to kill him, Umina said. So if the police couldn’t offer him safety, he had to show he could defend himself.
Dixon then went inside his girlfriend’s home, got his gun, came back outside and returned fire, Umina said.
Umina said his client may not have made the right decision, but that his position in life left him in a precarious position. He said the point of the courts was to find justice and Dixon going to prison while the people who tried to kill him did not wouldn’t be justice.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Chad Noel said the self-defense argument went out the window as the threat was gone by the time Dixon retrieved his gun and came back outside to return fire.
David McDonald, a Marjorie Gardens resident, said he saw both shootings. He said he didn’t know the identity of the two men who shot at Dixon. He was on his porch drinking a coffee and his wife and child were in their new minivan. One of the bullets from Dixon passed right above the car seat where the baby was.
Noel said Dixon was not a good candidate for alternative sentencing and asked for a sentence of one to five years in prison.
He also noted Dixon’s criminal history, which includes a robbery conviction in 2008. Noel also pointed to a pending domestic battery case involving Dixon and the woman he was with during this incident scheduled for trial in January.
As a felon, Dixon is not allowed to own firearms.
A person prohibited from possessing firearms charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement.
Gaujot said he was concerned about the domestic battery and the previous opportunities Dixon has not taken advantage of.
Tweet @WillDean_DP
