Nathan Dickson pled guilty today, September 21, 2009, in Anderson County General Sessions court to four counts of murder and four counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The State agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for his plea. The Honorable Cordell Maddox presided.
The facts were stated as follows:
On Saturday morning, April 26, 2008, law enforcement responded to 153 Pine Lake Drive in Anderson County in reference to a 911 call that had abruptly ended. When the officers arrived they found the bodies of 46 year old Andy Dickson, 14 year old Taylor Dickson, 41 year old Maritza Hurtado Dickson, and 19 year old Jiliam Salazar, all of whom had been fatally shot. The police immediately tried to locate anyone else who had been living in the home. Nadine Salazar, Maritza’s eldest daughter, was at flight school at the time in Florida and defendant Nathan Dickson, age 18 at the time, could not be located. When this Defendant was located later the same evening, he gave a full voluntary written confession admitting to shooting and killing his father, brother, stepmother and stepsister. In his confession, the Defendant details the events of that morning. (The excerpts read in court are attached to this press release).
The evidence collected in this case corroborates the Defendant’s confession. There is a horrific 911 call from Andy and gruesome crime scene photos that are consistent with what Nathan describes. A 12 gauge shotgun was found in the woods by the house. According to SLED the shotgun was found to be in working order and the three spent shotshells located at the crime scene were determined to have been fired by this shotgun. Andy Dickson’s blood was found on the handle of the shotgun. Lt. Scott with Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Forensics located a palm print that matched the Defendant’s right hand on the same shotgun and found the position of the palm print to be consistent with someone having swung the shotgun like a club. He further analyzed a fingerprint from a spent shotshell collected from the crime scene that was also likely to have been the Defendants. The autopsies also confirm what Nathan describes in his statement. Maritza was shot once in the right side of the head. Andy had multiple gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma in the head where Nathan described hitting him with the shotgun. Taylor had a shotgun wound to the neck and a shotgun wound to the head. Jiliam also had a shotgun wound to her left side. All bodies were also located where Nathan describes in his statement.
In court today, Solicitor Adams stated the following:
Despite the hard work on the part of the Sheriff’s Office, we will never know why Nathan Dickson so tragically and violently took four of his family members’ lives. This has been one of the most difficult aspects for everyone associated with this case. There were no drugs or alcohol found in his system. There is no issue of insanity. We can only speculate as to motive. Nathan called his father his hero on his MySpace page and loved his little brother. He got along well with his step-mother and step-sisters. He graduated from Wren High in June of 2007. According to many field interviews, in high school, he had been a good kid, a decent student and well liked. After graduation, he had been living in an apartment with a friend who had recently kicked him out for stealing his credit card. His first love had also recently broken up with him because her mother did not like him and did not want him around. He tried to get into the Marines and scored so low on the military entrance exam that he was not allowed to complete the next part of the test. However, he lied to several people about already being in the marines and having done several tours. When his friend kicked him out of the apartment Nathan went to live with his father, stepmother, stepsister, and brother. This was approximately two weeks before the killings. Shortly before the murders, Nathan had stolen $600 in change from his father. There was some tension in the house over the Defendant moving back in with the rest of the family. Maritza had confided in coworkers that there was some trouble with “the boy” in the home and that she was planning to move out of the home. However, she never mentioned Nathan by name and the co-workers assumed she was talking about Taylor. Nothing in Nathan Dickson’s life at the time of these murders rises to the level of explaining why he woke up that fateful Saturday morning and went on a killing spree with the people he loved.
This has been extremely emotional and difficult for everyone who has been involved in this case and for everyone who has been touched by the Dickson and Hurtado families. This is a horrific tragedy that has affected an entire community. Andy and Maritza had been together for years. Nathan and Taylor essentially grew up with Maritza and her 2 daughters Jiliam and Nadine (the surviving sister). They were a close family and a family that was well respected in the community. Maritza taught ESL in Greenville at Cherrydale Elementary School. Jiliam was at Tri County Tech and wanted to go to vet school at UGA. Andy worked at Vulcan Construction and was very active in his children’s lives. Taylor was 14 years old and also went to Wren Middle School. He played baseball and Andy helped coach and was very involved in the school.
We have met with and talked at length with the family – both sides. Both sides are strongly opposed to the Death Penalty. They all loved this Defendant. His extremely young age of 18 at the time of the murders and the fact that he had no prior criminal history also played a big role in reaching the decision to accept this plea and sentence today. Also, not being able to answer “why?” has been extremely disturbing and unsettling for not only the family, but for law enforcement as well.
Nathan is just 20 years old right now. The family believes that this sentence, having to think about what he did for the rest of his life, in essence, is worse than a death sentence. They are probably right.
In Court today the Judge also heard from an expert from the defense team that stated Nathan Dickson was suffering from dissociative amnesia which affected his ability to recall what happened the day of the murders. However, after waiving his client-attorney privilege, his attorneys stated that for up to two weeks after the murders, he clearly admitted to the crimes.
I have struggled with the decision to accept four consecutive life sentences over death. But this tragedy has shocked us all, the family, law enforcement and the entire community. We will never know the extent of the number of lives affected. The Hurtado’s and the Dickson’s are incredible people and incredibly strong families. They will never be able to forget what happened that day. I just pray that they are able in some way to come to peace with what has happened and that they are able to move on with their lives. This guilty plea today can at least give them closure to this chapter in the healing process. They have a long way to go. This plea is what is best for this family and for this community.
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