ASHEVILLE – A city man will spend at least 18 years behind bars after pleading guilty Monday to killing his girlfriend's 4-year-old son.
Judge Alan Thornburg sentenced Michael Antonio Dixon Jr., 24, to a minimum of 225 months and a maximum of 279 months in state prison for the death of Cedric Francois on Oct. 19, 2011.
Dixon, who originally was charged with first-degree murder, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury in the plea hearing in Buncombe County Superior Court.
Prosecutor Rodney Hasty said the district attorney's office agreed to the plea because investigators didn't believe Dixon intended to kill the boy when he struck him in the face after the child accidentally soiled himself.
Dixon, who was babysitting the boy while his mother was at work, put the child in a bathtub before striking him, Hasty said. Investigators believe the boy, when struck, fell backward and hit the back of his head on the tub, Hasty said.
The boy died from blunt force trauma to the head that caused bleeding around the brain, according to an autopsy report by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill. The boy's mother, Taquita Francois, told police she left him in Dixon's care at her Pisgah View Apartments home when she went to work.
"It does not appear to us at the time the defendant hit the child he intended to kill the child," Hasty told the judge.
Dixon's attorney, Al Messer, call the child's death a "tragic situation."
"Mr. Dixon is accepting responsibility and is pleading guilty," Messer said.
No relative of the boy was present for Monday's hearing. Dixon's family members who were present declined to comment after the hearing.
According to the autopsy, the boy had older injuries that were unrelated to the head trauma, including rib fractures on both sides of the chest and a human bite mark on the left forearm.
Asheville police began investigating the child's death after being notified by Mission Hospital staff about "questionable injuries" discovered on his body. According to court documents, a detective at the hospital observed numerous injuries, including hemorrhages in both eyes, bruises on his face, buttocks and around his ankles, abrasions on his chest, forehead and under his left eye, a laceration on his right ear, a laceration on his lower lip and a bite mark on his arm.
"This is truly a heartbreaking loss for our community," District Attorney Todd Williams said. "Our sympathies go out to the family of this precious child who was lost in a senseless act of child abuse."
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