The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week ordered the prosecution and defense to file documents “within 15 days” in the ongoing appeal of Dr. Thomas Micheal Dixon, 51, of Amarillo. Specifically, Dixon is appealing the court’s refusal to lower his $10,000,000 bond.
Dixon was booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center on July 16, 2012 in a murder-for-hire case. Prosecutors claimed Dixon paid David Neal Shepard to kill Dr. Joseph Sonnier, 57, of Lubbock.
Dixon went to trial, but on November 19, 2014 State District Judge Jim Bob Darnell declared a mistrial because of a hung jury. In December Dixon requested a lower bond. The judge said no.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Amarillo sided with the judge. Now the case is before the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin. In the meantime Dr. Dixon remains locked up – unable to pay the bond.
“The trial court’s bail amount has the effect of operating as an instrument of oppression,” Dixon’s defense team wrote to the appeals court in early April.
The defense team told the appeals court in a written application that bail should only be used to ensure the defendant shows up a trial and not as a form of punishment.
In the meantime, a new trial date was set for October 12, 2015.
