‘My son is not here because of him.’ Emotions erupt at bond hearing in Macon baby’s death
The grandmother of a 1-year-old Macon boy who prosecutors allege was killed by his mother’s boyfriend early last year testified at a bond hearing Thursday, saying the boyfriend was “cold-hearted” and “dangerous.”
The boyfriend, Jamarius Khalil Dixon, 20, of Sandersville, has been held at the Bibb County jail since March 3, 2021, when he was charged with murder and cruelty to children in the Feb. 24, 2021, death of Jayce King Gibson.
The infant had turned a year old about 10 days before his death, which a medical examiner has attributed to non-accidental, blunt-force trauma.
Dixon, who was not the child’s father, is a former standout basketball player at Washington County High School. He had hopes of playing professionally overseas.
Bond denied
His sister and others spoke well of him at Thursday’s hour-long hearing, at the end of which Senior Judge Bryant Culpepper denied Dixon bond. The hearing was not so much to delve into potential facts of the case, but rather to determine whether Dixon would be a flight risk or a danger to himself or the community if he were freed to await trial.
“He is young and he is Black and he (does) have stigmas that are against him right now in this world,” his sister, Shatrice Dixon, said. “But what I do know is for him to be a loving, compassionate person. ... He’s an amazing person, and I know my mom didn’t raise anyone that would hurt a baby.”
Dixon’s defense attorney, Debra Gomez, refuted prosecutors’ allegation that Dixon killed the child.
Gomez said the infant suffered from seizures and that his death could have been the result of a fall or other accident.
Assistant district attorney Shelley Milton said that the boy’s mother, Endya Reynolds, told investigators after her son’s death that her boyfriend, Dixon, had been “physically and emotionally abusive to her.”
Milton also said Reynolds’ grandmother told the authorities that Dixon had pulled a gun on her a few months before Jayce’s death.
The prosecutor said Dixon had been alone with Jayce when Reynolds returned — apparently to a Macon residence — to find the child “unresponsive.”
Milton said the explanation that Dixon later gave investigators was “insufficient to explain the traumatic, non-accidental head trauma” that a medical examiner determined was fatal.
Milton said Dixon told investigators that the baby was “clumsy.”
She said the murder charge against Dixon is based on the state’s contention that Jayce died from being shaken, from “non-accidental, blunt-force trauma to his head.”
‘He knows deep down what he did’
The baby’s mother testified that she didn’t want Dixon released on bond, in part because she said he had abused her in the past and feared him.
“I almost died because of him,” Reynolds testified. “He choked me ... and I literally passed out.”
She said Dixon also fired a gunshot at her.
“My son is not here because of him,” she added, referring to the baby’s death. “He knows deep down that he did that. ... You know what you did.”
Reynolds said she didn’t want Dixon released on bond.
“I’m terrified,” she said of the prospect.
Her mother, Crystal Reynolds, described Dixon as “dangerous” — “a cold-hearted person” and “a narcissist” — who had cussed her and left her daughter emotionally scarred.
“She has nightmares,” Crystal Reynolds said of her daughter. “This man has really ruined her.”
She added: “I don’t believe that he should get out at all. ... My family is going through so much pain. I have to look at my grandson’s urn every day, every day!”
