Loyd gets life for murder of pregnant ex
He avoids death penalty, but still faces a capital trial
Markeith Loyd was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday for shooting and killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon, after a jury opted against recommending the death penalty.
The 12-member jury deliberated for only about an hour on whether Loyd should face execution for Dixon’s 2016 killing.
As the verdict was read, Loyd had no visible reaction, though he later blew kisses to his family sitting in the gallery. Neither Loyd’s family nor Dixon’s family commented after the decision was announced.
The same jury found Loyd, 44, guilty last week of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of
24-year-old Dixon outside her home as well as attempting to murder three of her family members. After Wednesday’s verdict, Circuit Judge Leticia Marques sentenced Loyd to five consecutive life sentences.
The convicted killer is expected to go on trial in May in the slaying of Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton, and he will once again still face the possibility of capital punishment.
Police say Loyd shot and killed Clayton after she tried to arrest him for Dixon’s killing on Jan. 9, 2017, at a Walmart on Princeton Street. A sergeant when she was killed, Clayton was posthumously promoted.
Loyd’s defense attorney Terence Lenamon said the jury’s decision to spare his client from death row was a “big message” to Ocalabased State Attorney Brad King. Former Gov. Rick Scott reassigned Loyd’s case and dozens of other capital cases to King’s office after Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala said in 2017 she would not consider the death penalty.
“He’s gonna die in prison,” Lenamon said. “Do we want to spend all kinds of more money to try to kill him for Sgt. Clayton’s unfortunate death? I don’t know if the community really wants to do that.”
Orange County Sheriff John Mina, who was Orlando police chief at the time of Clayton’s killing, said in a statement he always believed the murders warranted the death penalty.
“I’m glad that a jury had a chance to hear this case and decide Markeith Loyd’s fate,” Mina said. “Nothing can erase the pain we all feel about these senseless murders. But today, there is some relief in knowing that he will never be free from prison.”
During closing arguments at the Orange County Courthouse, Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway argued Loyd did not have a mental illness, as expert witnesses for the defense had testified, but rather was possessive of his ex and unwilling to tolerate her defiance.
“It wasn’t that Markeith Loyd lost control that night,” Ridgway said. “It’s that he lost control of Sade Dixon. She wasn’t going to do what he wanted her to do — accept his lifestyle, accept his rules.”
Lenamon begged jurors to “step into the light” and not sentence his client to death by lethal injection.
“He’s a human being,” Lenamon said. “He deserves to live — not die.”
Jurors found the state proved two aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt: that Loyd was on federal probation at the time of Dixon’s killing and that he had previously battered a law enforcement officer in 1998. But the jury found prosecutors did not prove the third aggravating factor — that Dixon’s unborn child was a person less than 12 years of age.
Prosecutors had argued they did not need to prove Dixon’s 12- to 13-week old fetus was viable at the time of death. Despite the two proven aggravating factors, jurors decided those reasons were not sufficient to warrant death.
Expert defense witnesses testified Tuesday that Loyd suffered from mental illnesses, including a delusional disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder,
which likely played a role in Dixon’s killing.
“My conclusion was he was suffering a symptom of being out of touch with reality,” Michael Maher, a psychiatrist, told jurors. “He doesn’t have a choice but to function based on what his brain can do.”
Loyd testified he went to Dixon’s house the night of Dec. 13, 2016, to convince his ex-girlfriend not to get an abortion after they broke up. Dixon pulled a gun on him, which Loyd said he took away and stored with his two guns before her brother Ronald Stewart came outside to check on them.
Loyd said Dixon’s brother attacked him, and one of his guns went off and hit Stewart. The convicted killer said he thought Dixon had picked up a gun he dropped in the fight and he went into “warrior mode,” shooting at her and family members who rushed outside to help.
But Stewart, who survived, testified he never attacked Loyd, and prosecutors argued Loyd shot the siblings as they walked back into their house after telling him to leave.
Loyd’s family members testified about Loyd becoming a provider for them despite his rough childhood. His sister Tonya Loyd told jurors her siblings would often go hungry but her brother would steal bread and bologna for them to eat.
“I’ve always been proud to call Markeith Loyd my big brother, and that’ll never change,” Tonya Loyd said.
The judge allowed jurors to know Loyd used the same gun in both the Dixon and Clayton killings — but not that Clayton died after the shooting. Lenamon said he was considering an insanity defense for Loyd’s trial in Clayton’s killing next year.
“There’s a lot of things that the jury didn’t hear about him,” Lenamon told reporters. “A lot of it had to do with mental health issues, and I think the next jury is going to hear more about what was going on between the time he got out of prison and time of these events.”
When asked if the convicted killer felt relief after the verdict, Lenamon said Loyd “never cared about the mitigation.”
“It’s not important to him,” Lenamon said. “What’s important is his innocence in the Dixon situation, and so that’s always been his focal point.”
Loyd almost opted out of hearing the jury’s life-ordeath decision in person, telling Marques he preferred to wait in jail rather than be brought back to court.
“I don’t care what they say,” Loyd said, before changing his mind while the jurors deliberated. “I don’t care what they think. I’m ready to go.”
Lenamon said if prosecutors offered Loyd a plea deal for a life sentence in Clayton’s killing, he would try to convince his client to accept. The defense has argued Loyd shot Clayton after she fired at him as he tried to escape.
“Do you kill someone who is mentally ill, who has the history that he has, who reacts in the way he reacted with her?” Lenamon asked. “This is not what you would consider a cold-blooded killing. This is an act that occurred in response. Whether it was right or wrong, that’s something the jury will have to decide.”