Woman convicted of attempted murder near Colfax sentenced to 10 years probation for armed robbery

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE —  A 24-year-old woman serving prison time for her participation in stabbing and cutting the throat of another woman in the Town of Grant northeast of Colfax in 2011 has been sentenced to 10 years of probation for a 2008 armed robbery.

Christina M. Dixon was sentenced by Judge Michael J. Bitney in Dunn County Circuit Court October 20.

In addition to probation, Judge Bitney sentenced Dixon to serve 30 days in jail concurrent with the other sentence for her role in stabbing a woman and leaving her for dead and ordered Dixon to have no contact with Torch’s Valley Bar and to pay restitution of $537.

According to a news release from the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department issued on August 5, during a review of cold cases that included an armed robbery at Torch’s Valley Bar in the Town of Lucas in October of 2008, additional DNA evidence was submitted to the Wisconsin Crime Lab for analysis.

The crime lab informed the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department that the DNA profile matched the known DNA profile of Christina M. Dixon.

Dixon had been interviewed in 2008 regarding the armed robbery but denied any involvement, according to the news release.

Sheriff’s department investigators interviewed Dixon again on June 11 of this year and confronted her with the DNA evidence.

Dixon subsequently confessed to being one of the three individuals who had robbed Torch’s Valley Bar.

In addition, Dixon named and described two other people who had committed the crime with her: Terence E. Mills, 36, of New Auburn, and Matthew M. Baier, 28, of Redgranite.

In August of 2011, Dixon pleaded “no contest” in Dunn County Circuit Court after being charged in connection with stabbing a woman and was found guilty of felony bail jumping, being a party to the crime of battery intending great bodily harm and possession of methamphetamine.

Dixon originally was charged with felony counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, aggravated battery intending great bodily harm, strangulation and suffocation, and false imprisonment. Part of her plea deal included testifying against co-defendant Juan Carvajal Castro if necessary.

Castro was charged with felony counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, aggravated battery intending great bodily harm, strangulation and suffocation, and false imprisonment.

In May of 2011, Dixon drove Castro, who was 17 years old at the time, and Deanna Simmons, 25, to several Wal-Mart stores in the area and then out to an unoccupied residence on county Highway A in the Town of the Grant where Simmons’ throat was cut and she was stabbed and left for dead.

Dixon had at one time worked for Duron Bergeson of Colfax, the owner of the unoccupied house.

From the time of her arrest in May of 2011 until the sentencing hearing in November of that year, Dixon was held in the Dunn County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond. She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and five years of probation.

Castro subsequently pleaded guilty to an amended charge of aggravated battery intending great bodily harm and was sentenced to ten years in prison and five years of extended supervision.

At the time of the armed robbery in 2008, Dixon was 18 years old.

Mills, the defendant in the armed robbery case who is from New Auburn, is charged with one felony count of armed robbery and  is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Dunn County Circuit Court on October 31. A bail of $200 cash was set in the case on August 6.

Baier also is charged with one felony count of armed robbery and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Dunn County on November 18. A bail of $200 cash was set on August 6 for Baier as well.

Online court records indicate that Baier was previously a resident of Elk Mound.