11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office dismisses another first-degree murder charge after plea deal to suspect with long criminal history

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Dustin Dixon is the latest person to go through the 11th Judicial District court and avoid murder charges.

In June 2022, Dixon shot and killed Michael Sean Adams in Penrose, Colorado. He was later arrested and charged with first-degree and second-degree murder, possession of a weapon by a previous offender and reckless endangerment. However, Dixon claims the shooting was self defense.

On June 29, 2022, Dixon went to Adams’ fiance Jeannette Laperriere’s house to pick up a 5th-wheel trailer. Although Laperriere didn’t own the trailer, she told Dixon he could have it.

He arrived at the property, although Laperriere told him not to come that day. Dixon and his girlfriend started cleaning out the trailer. Adams arrived at the house a short time later. According to the arrest affidavit, he and his friend approached the trailer with guns.

While inside, they fired shots at Dixon’s feet and told his girlfriend, Katariina Gibson, to leave. In the arrest affidavit, Dixon told detectives Adams threatened his life. Adams then left the trailer with Dixon’s backpack to search it, while his friend, Francis Monahan, put a gun to Gibson’s head, threatening her life.

In the arrest affidavit, Dixon, still in the trailer, told detectives he fired “warning shots.” He said that’s when Adams and Monahan started shooting back. He said he fired a couple more shots and thought he hit Adams “in the shoulder.” According to the Fremont County coroner, Adams was shot once in the back.

When he came out of the trailer, Adams was on the ground not breathing and Monahan and Gibson were gone. He later called 911 and said he shot Adams in self defense.

In court Friday, an assistant district attorney with the 11th Judicial District said Dixon’s self-defense claim was “valid,” so the prosecution offered Dixon a plea agreement that dismissed the murder charges.

But Laperriere said the events described in the arrest affidavit, particularly Dixon’s self defense claim, are false and that law enforcement and the DA’s office didn’t do enough work to find the truth.

Dixon accepted the agreement and was sentenced to four years for possession of a weapon by a previous offender and inducement-controlled substances.

Dixon was previously convicted of a felony for an assault on a peace officer in 2019 and therefore unlawfully possessed a weapon, which he said he borrowed from a friend, according to the arrest affidavit.

Dixon has a long criminal history, dating back to 2008. He has pleaded guilty to multiple charges for possession of controlled substances and theft.

Dixon’s defense attorney, Becky Briggs, said she avoided 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley and went around her to get the plea agreement. She said this was because of the numerous discovery violations by the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in previous cases.

13 Investigates has uncovered 33 separate criminal cases where the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office is accused of not handing evidence over to the defense as mandated by the courts.

Instead, Briggs said she went to an assistant prosecutor to get the plea agreement. She said if she went through Stanley, the outcome would have been much different.

“I believe it would have been two years of grief and litigating discovery and ethical violations and complete madness,” she said. “It would have been an embarrassment to the entire centennial state.”

Although this case doesn’t have any evidence violations, according to Briggs, this is at least the third time the 11th Judicial District has dismissed a first-degree murder charge.

The most recent occurred earlier this month when a first-degree murder charge against a man accused of killing his father was dismissed for discovery violations. The suspect, Joseph Tippet, is now facing a second-degree murder charge.

The other instance involved Barry Morphew, accused of murdering his wife Suzanne, who went missing on Mother's Day in 2020. He was charged by the DA's office for her murder in 2021. The case was later dismissed after repeated discovery violations leading to the prosecution’s expert witness being barred from testifying.

Laperriere said Dixon’s plea agreement is another example of the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office not doing its job.

“Fremont County — it’s only here where you can get away with murder,” she said. “Thats what he did, he just got away with murder.”