Defense in Muskingum County murder trial: Women acted alone

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, OhioOct.儲存 16--ZANESVILLE, Ohio -- Lawyers for LaFonse Dixon Jr. blasted the case against him today, calling it one built on lies by two co-defendants desperate to cut a deal to avoid the death penalty."How can you save yourself if there's only two?" said lawyer Larry Thomas.Dixon, 34, of Canton, is charged with aggravated murder with a death-penalty specification, aggravated arson, kidnapping and two conspiracy counts in the death of Celeste Fronsman. The Canton woman, 29, died on Aug. 28, 2012, two days after a motorist found her badly burned and writhing in pain on Rt. 208, outside of Zanesville.Two other Canton residents, Monica Washington, 25, and Katrina Culberson, 22, have admitted their roles in the crime. They pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, aggravated arson and kidnapping, avoiding the death penalty in exchange for their testimony against Dixon.As the trial came to a close today, jurors in the Muskingum County Common Pleas Court heard hours of closing statements in which defense attorneys hinted that the women may have acted alone and prosecutors insisted Dixon was there.Isabella Dixon, one of Dixon's lawyers, said the crime was one of passion, "based on obsessive love and crack-fueled emotions."All of the women involved, including Fronsman, were prostitutes and crack addicts living and working on the streets迷你倉of Canton. Fronsman and Culberson also had been lovers.Isabella Dixon, who is not related to her client, said autopsy photos don't show the savage beating that prosecutors say Fronsman suffered at the hands of Dixon before she died. But they do show that the burn marks were concentrated at Fronsman's torso and genitals, she said."Her vagina is where that match was thrown and what was lit on fire," Isabella Dixon said. " That's something a woman scorned does."Muskingum County Prosecutor Mike Haddox challenged that assertion. "Did you hear any testimony about a match?" he asked jurors. Culberson had testified earlier that she doused Fronsman with gasoline and set her ablaze with a flick of a lighter that Dixon had handed her.Haddox also denied that the prosecutors had based their case on the testimony of Culberson and Washington. He listed 18 other witnesses and pieces of evidence that he said support the case, including DNA evidence found on a roll of masking tape used to bind Fronsman and cell phone towers that showed Dixon's phone moving south as the women transported Fronsman to the wooded area where she was set on fire.Jurors are set to begin deliberating the case this afternoon.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at .dispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage