Appeals Court Upholds Long Beach Strangler's Conviction

A state appellate court panel today upheld a man’s conviction for strangling his girlfriend in Long Beach just over three years ago.

A three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found that the evidence that Jeffery Dixon “committed a murder was overwhelming.”

Dixon was convicted last year of second-degree murder for the April 30, 2012, killing of Monique Diane Burton, 51.

Dixon was arrested several days later as he walked out of his sister’s home in Compton.

He told a Los Angeles police detective, “It is me. I am the guy you are looking for. I knew Long Beach PD was looking for me,” and subsequently volunteered, “I killed her,” according to the appellate court panel’s eight- page ruling.

In the appeal, Dixon’s attorneys claimed the trial judge erred by sustaining a prosecution objection to comments made by the defense in closing arguments asking the jurors to “walk” in Dixon’s shoes.

Dixon told police that the woman had threatened to call the police after the two fought because he was a third-strike offender, and that he strangled her with his belt and an electrical cord after hitting her with a folded chair and knocking her unconscious, according to the ruling.

Dixon dug a hole in the garage in a thwarted attempt to bury her body, which was found by police inside a triplex on Ellis Street, authorities said.

He is serving a 51-year-to-life term in state prison.

City News Service