SAN ANTONIO — Twenty months after the son of a prominent San Antonio pastor was gunned down on the east side, a man has been convicted and sentenced to life for his murder.
Vernon Dixon received the life sentence Wednesday, one day after he was found guilty of shooting and killing 19-year-old Avante Boyce, the son of Darrell Boyce and Dixon's own stepson-in-law, on March 31, 2022. The shooting sparked a manhunt for Dixon who was finally arrested in June 2022 in Wichita, Kansas—ending a period of uncertainty for the Boyce family.
Dixon was also sentenced to 60 years each for tampering with evidence and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
"Because of your cowardly act, you've torn down my family," Darrell Boyce said in court Wednesday, with Dixon not in attendance. "You've caused a divide with lifelong relationships, but most of all left my three grandchildren without their father."
Dixon was indicted in October of 2022 and, according to online court records, his trial started on Nov. 7 of this year. In addition to murder, he was also convicted of tampering with evidence and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Detectives at the time of the 2022 shooting said Avante Boyce and Dixon were at a family gathering when some women got into a heated argument. They say the men separated the women, but Boyce was shot multiple times as he attempted to leave.
At the time, police said Boyce tried to run for his life, but he collapsed just a few feet from where he was shot.
Prosecutors on Wednesday urged the jury to remember that the 2022 crime involved Dixon's own family. Pictures of the crime scene taken by a surveillance camera were shown to the jury, indicating that the area where the shooting took place was full of children who had just gotten out of school.
They presented a list of witnesses who testified against Dixon, and reminded the jury that if he were to go free, everyone who testified against him might be at risk of harm.
Dixon will be eligible for parole in 30 years, when he would be 87 years old. Darrell Boyce said that, if he's still alive, he'll fight to keep Dixon locked up.
"If by chance I don't make it to heaven," he told Dixon on Wednesday, "I want to meet you in hell to beat you and inflict a thousand times the pain my son felt."
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