A DeKalb County man who assaulted and fatally injured his girlfriend in 2019 has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Antonio Taylor, 56, of Decatur, was convicted Thursday on multiple charges, including malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated battery, DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston said in a news release. Following his guilty verdict, Taylor was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The incident took place April 28, 2019, when Taylor returned home from a weekend away, Boston said. He believed his girlfriend, 37-year-old Aisha Dixon, had cheated on him with another man while he was gone.
The discovery upset Taylor to the point that he beat and strangled Dixon so severely that she suffered fatal injuries. All of Dixon’s ribs were fractured, and she experienced “numerous blunt force trauma injuries throughout her torso, head and neck,” Boston said.
Prosecutors said Dixon’s 12-year-old son witnessed her beating.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
The fight led the leaseholder of the Decatur apartment complex where Taylor and Dixon lived to kick them out, according to Boston. When Taylor’s daughter arrived to pick them up, she and her boyfriend noticed that Dixon was sitting on the ground, leaning on a car and mumbling. Taylor told his daughter that Dixon was drunk, but she was actually dying from internal bleeding, Boston said.
According to Boston, Dixon died while she was being taken to Taylor’s daughter’s apartment. As Taylor carried Dixon’s body to the apartment, he dropped her, causing a gash on her head that did not bleed. Taylor then gave Dixon a bath and left her lying on the floor of his daughter’s apartment.
Eventually, Taylor took Dixon to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he told the emergency room staff that Dixon had fallen on the stairs. They realized that Dixon had been dead for some time and that her injuries did not match Taylor’s story, so they called police.
Taylor originally denied that he hurt Dixon but ultimately admitted to strangling her, Boston said. Dixon’s autopsy revealed her cause of death to be blunt force trauma associated with manual strangulation. Taylor was originally booked into the Fulton County Jail, but his case was transferred to DeKalb.
Taylor’s bond was denied in May 2019 and he has remained in the DeKalb County Jail since. He previously served 12 years in prison after he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
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