FOSTORIA

Dixson gets life in prison for murder of ex’s mother

Pair were shot at while waiting in parked car

10/26/2013

TIFFIN — A former Perrysburg man who fired multiple bullets at his former girlfriend and her mother as they sat in a car in Fostoria will spend the rest of his life in prison.

On Friday, Seneca County Common Pleas Judge Steve Shuff sentenced Calvin Dixson, 37, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the aggravated murder of Lisa Stowers, 50, of Springfield, Ohio. He received an additional 16 years in prison for the attempted aggravated murder of Tyeesha Ferguson Snowden, 36, and two firearms specifications.

It was all that Mrs. Snowden had asked for in a brief statement read to the court by Libra Martin, director of the Seneca County Victim Assistance Program.

“I wish that he will never be released to cause anyone else pain,” her statement read. “This will never bring my mother back, but at least now, her death will not be in vain.”

Mrs. Snowden, who was married in August, had testified during Dixson’s jury trial earlier this week that she had been involved in a relationship with him for more than four years, but that she had ended it and obtained a protection order against him last December.

On July 28, she said, she and her mother were sitting in a car outside her dying grandmother’s house in Fostoria when Dixson walked up to the car, said some things, and then shot Ms. Stowers multiple times in the front seat.

He then turned the gun on Mrs. Snowden in the backseat.

Mrs. Snowden, who was critically injured and is still recovering from her wounds, said in her statement before sentencing that because of Dixson’s actions, “my whole life has changed, and at this time, I’m just picking up the pieces. A slow recovery is on my plate.”

Dixson declined to speak when given the opportunity. His attorney, Dean Henry, said he intends to appeal..