KAMR – MyHighPlains.com

Former Amarillo Plastic Surgeon still sentenced to life on 1 charge of capital murder

LUBBOCK, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — According to court documents from the Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas, Thomas Dixon, a former Amarillo plastic surgeon was found guilty of one charge of capital murder and acquitted on a second charge.

The court documents, released Friday, state that a second jury found Dixon guilty on both those courts after being retried following a mistrial. However, following the retrial, the Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas sustained Dixon’s appeal of his cell phone records being obtained without a warrant and excluding the public from the courtroom.

Dixon was found guilty of the first charge of murder-for-remuneration and was sentenced to life without parole

Court documents go on to say that, “having sustained Appellant’s double-jeopardy complaint, we reverse and render a judgment of acquittal for the offense charged under Count 2 of the indictment, murder in the course of committing burglary.

Dixon was convicted in Lubbock for the 2012 shooting and stabbing death of Joseph Sonnier.  Prosecutors did not say Dixon was the triggerman.  Instead, they made the case the Dixon paid David Shepard to do it. 

According to the documents, the trial court imposed the obligatory sentence of life in prison with parole on each count, the state did not seek the death penalty.