She stabbed a Macon woman to death in a clash over a man. Was it murder or self-defense?
Jurors on Thursday found a Macon woman guilty in the 2018 stabbing death of a woman after learning she and the victim were in a relationship with the same man.
Jurors deliberated for about two and a half hours before convicting Brandi Nicole Dixon, who had claimed self-defense in the slaying of 35-year-old Ebony Monique Smith, of felony murder.
Dixon was acquitted of a malice murder charge but was sentenced to life in prison, which requires her to spend at least 30 years behind bars before she can become eligible for parole.
During the three-day trial, prosecutors said Dixon confronted Smith at a late-night birthday bash being thrown for the boyfriend the two women had been seeing.
The deadly encounter happened in the 600 block of Pebble Street, which runs between Telfair and Second streets about five blocks south of the Bibb County jail.
Witnesses in court said Dixon, now 36, showed up with a knife and made remarks about looking for her boyfriend, possibly, someone he was seeing.
At some point, prosecutors said Dixon happened upon Smith and threatened her with a pink Cuisinart kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade.
Smith then reached into her car mere steps away, grabbed a pistol and fired a single shot, possibly a warning shot, according to bystanders, and was stabbed in the chest by Dixon.
Smith collapsed and died within minutes.
Dixon’s defense attorney argued that Dixon was acting in self-defense.
But jurors apparently did not agree with that claim, possibly deciding that because Dixon was the primary aggressor, the one who started the trouble that night, that Dixon was responsible for the bloodshed that followed.
Prosecutor Shelley Milton noted in her closing argument that it was Dixon “who came to a gathering with a large kitchen knife.”
Dixon, Milton said, “was provoking a response,” and that it was Smith who, though unsuccessful, had acted in self-defense.
During sentencing, Dixon, who did not take the stand at trial, addressed the court.
“I had no intentions that night of hurting anyone,” she said.
Dixon said she lived nearby on Second Street and that she carried the knife for protection.
“Anywhere I go,” she said, “I carry a knife.”
She said she “wasn’t a threat to anyone.”
Dixon claimed that Smith “shot at my head. I begged her and begged her. I said, ‘Please, don’t kill me.’ ... That’s when I reached down and that’s when I defended myself ... and I stabbed her.”
Judge Howard Z. Simms said the jury had not agreed with her version of events.
The judge also told her that fighting over a man, the apparent impetus for the slaying, had been a “stupid” endeavor.
“I’ve been a man almost 60 years,” Simms said. “I can promise you there ain’t a man in the world worth what’s gonna happen (at this hearing). And there ain’t a man in the world worth what did happen.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 5:32 PM.