Lubbock Murder For Hire Trial To Begin Monday

Jury selection in a murder for hire capital murder case continued in Lubbock Texas. Dr Thomas Dixon is accused of hiring David Shepard to kill his business partner Dr Joseph Sonnier in July 2012.  The has already been one trial that ended in a mistrial when one juror could not reach a verdict. The testimony in the trial is expected to begin Monday.

The prosecution is expected to call the actual killer David Sheppard as a witness. Sheppard has plead guilty to a capital murder charge in exchange for a life with out parole sentence. Defense attorney’s in the case will no doubt hammer Sheppard about his deal with the prosecution and other issues of credibility. They will remind jurors that under Texas law a person can not be convicted on the testimony of an accomplice alone. There must be some other evidence that tends to connect the defendant to the crime.

In order to produce sufficient evidence to connect the defendant to the crime the prosecution is likely to call Sheppard’s roommate who will testify that Sheppard told him Dixon gave him three silver bars worth $3,000 each as payment for the murder. The defense will strongly object to this hearsay statement but there is an exception to this type of hearsay that the prosecutors will try to use to convince the judge to allow the statement to come into evidence.