Killers receive life sentences

Judge: Convict's girlfriend could have prevented deaths by returning his calls

? A judge sentenced two men on Monday to consecutive life sentences for causing an explosion that killed a 19-year-old woman and her 13-month-old son.

But a large share of the responsibility for the deaths of Dana and Gabriel Hudson, the judge who sentenced Wallace L. Dixon III and Ethan M. Griffin said, lies with someone who likely never will be charged Dixon’s girlfriend, who the judge said could have prevented the killings by returning one of more than 100 of Dixon’s phone calls.

Dixon, 31, and Griffin, 26, were sentenced by Senior Judge Merlin Wheeler in separate hearings in Lyon County District Court.

Dixon was convicted May 6 of two counts of first-degree felony murder, five counts of aggravated battery, two counts of burglary, theft, criminal damage to property, aggravated assault and criminal possession of a firearm. He could be eligible for parole in about 50 years.

After a separate trial, Griffin was convicted May 14 of two counts of first-degree felony murder, five counts of aggravated battery and two counts of burglary. He could be eligible for parole in 46 years.

The July 29, 2001, explosion happened in the apartment of Alicia Shaw, the sister of Dixon’s girlfriend, Schelese Shaw. Hudson and her son lived next door and were unable to escape the flames.

Before sentencing Dixon, Wheeler told Schelese Shaw that her behavior leading up to the explosion made her morally responsible for the deaths.

At trial, prosecutors said Dixon’s motive for breaking into Alicia Shaw’s apartment and causing the explosion was rage that Schelese Shaw had left with her sister and not returned to the Topeka home she shared with Dixon.

Beginning July 28 and continuing into July 29, prosecutors said, Dixon telephoned Schelese Shaw’s cell phone more than 100 times, thinking the sisters were in Emporia. Schelese Shaw never told him otherwise.

“You had the opportunity of stopping his actions by stopping the charade that night,” Wheeler told Shaw. “During the 100 phone calls, you could have told Mr. Dixon you were no longer in Emporia and wanted to stop the game.

“Probably no one else is going to be charged with a crime in this matter,” the judge added. “But surely if there is such a thing as moral culpability for a crime such as this, you are a shining example.”

During Shaw’s testimony, she tried to minimize the abusive relationship between Dixon and herself and denied believing that he was enraged before the explosion.

Hudson’s family welcomed Wheeler’s remarks.

“That’s exactly what we were all thinking,” said Bruce Hudson, Dana Hudson’s father. “We were very surprised, but everything he said was all true.”