1 man guilty, 1 not in Parkway Gardens murder trial

VALLEJO — A murder trial ended Friday with a jury finding one man not guilty of first-degree murder and the co-defendant guilty of murder and several other charges for a 2010 shooting at the Parkway Gardens town houses.

Raymon Sellers’ acquittal came after his attorney, Tim Pori, made the tactical decision to present no defense case after the prosecutor rested her case against the two men.

“It was a very weak case against my guy,” Pori said of Sellers. “Yes, I told jurors I would call an alibi witness, but after the prosecution rested I deliberately chose not to call (the witness).”

Robert J. Dixon was found guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, assault with a deadly weapon and related charges for the Feb. 10, 2010, shooting.

Pori pointed to a prosecution witness telling police a few hours after the shooting the name of a suspect other than Sellers as a major factor in his client’s acquittal. Pori also said that while the key prosecution witness, Dixon’s girlfriend, identified Sellers as the second person whom she dropped off with Dixon at the Parkway Gardens just before the shooting, that identification came after an inexplicable decision by authorities to turn off audio and video equipment for several minutes that had been recording her interrogation for hours.

Pori previously told jurors that the girlfriend was afraid of retaliation if she identified the man who helped Dixon with the ambush shooting.

The girlfriend testified she had been the victim of a home invasion robbery two days before the shooting at a nearby town house in the crime-ridden complex and that Dixon afterward had vowed to “take care of business.”

Dixon and another man walked up on a group of three men gathered in front of a town house and started shooting. Kevin Domino Jr. was shot in the back and died at the scene. Another man was wounded and the town house they were in front of was riddled by as many as 20 bullets.

Dixon, a parolee at the time of the shooting, fled Fairfield the next day and was arrested in Texas a few days later.

Dixon is set to be back in court Monday for a brief hearing to confirm his past criminal history.

Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or at jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net.

Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=124187

Posted by Jess Sullivan on Jan 6 2012.

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