A Conway woman was arrested Friday on capital murder charges in the 2013 death of her husband, police say.
A warrant was issued by Perry County for the arrest of Mary Dixon of Conway after investigators said she was purportedly involved in the death of her husband, Carl Dixon. She was arrested at 2:20 p.m., and is being held without bond.
According to the arrest affidavit, Carl Dixon was shot to death on April 7, 2013, at his residence at 49 Cedar Lane in Bigelow.
Mary Dixon told police that she was at home and observed an intruder of unknown race and gender enter their home. She did not provide an approximate weight or height of the intruder, but told officers that the intruder was bigger than her, the affidavit states.
Mary Dixon said after the shooting, she went into the bedroom where she found her husband dead. She called 911, went outside the residence and met officers on the front porch that night.
Nichole Coburn, a friend of Mary Dixon’s nephew Danny Cannon, told investigators that Cannon had told her his aunt wanted her husband killed.
Coburn told investigators that she, Cannon and Thamous Miller went to Russellville around April 8 and stayed at the Days Inn. She saw that Cannon had a large sum of money, and he told her that it was $5,000.
On April 9 or 10, Coburn said, she and Cannon went to his grandmother’s house to see Mary Dixon. Before entering the residence, Cannon told Coburn that he’d killed Carl Dixon.
Miller told police he was dating Coburn and friends with Cannon in April 2013. He said about three days before Carl Dixon’s murder, he and Cannon drove to Carl Dixon's auto shop in Perry County, where they met Mary Dixon.
Miller said he knew the two were going to meet Mary Dixon to receive money to have Carl Dixon killed. Cannon exited the vehicle, and got into a vehicle with Mary Dixon for a short time, the affidavit states.
When Cannon got back into the vehicle with Miller, he saw Cannon with $5,000 in cash. Cannon then paid Miller $1,000 to purportedly drive the vehicle during the murder of Carl Dixon. Before Carl Dixon’s death, Cannon told Miller that Mary Dixon was supposed to be asleep in another room when he “committed the murder, and she would have the weapon at the residence."
He said that Mary Dixon was to send a text message signal when the two should come to the home, the affidavit states. Phone records showed that Mary Dixon called Cannon 13 times and sent him a text message at 9:47 p.m. on April 7.
Miller and Cannon drove to an unspecified area in Perry County, where Cannon got out of the vehicle and ran toward a residence west of Cedar Lane, without a rifle, according to the affidavit.
Miller then got into the driver’s seat and drove to the end of a gravel road. He turned around and picked Cannon up, when he entered the vehicle carrying a rifle with a wood stock.
The men drove back to the highway and turned toward Conway. They drove to a curve with a guard rail where Cannon threw his shoes and the rifle over the guardrail, according to the affidavit.