By Charmaine Smith-Miles - IndependentMail.com

September 21, 2009

ANDERSON — Nathan Dickson hung his head, barely looking at Judge Cordell Maddox as he admitted gunning down four members of his family more than a year ago without any real motive.

Dickson pleaded guilty today and was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility for parole, for the deaths of his father, Andy Dickson; his 14-year-old brother, Taylor; his stepsister, Jiliam Salazar; and his stepmother, Maritza Hurtado Dickson.

“In my nine years, this is the most unexplainable and despicable things I have ever seen in my courtroom,” Maddox said, looking at Dickson. “Your brother and your stepsister — their unlimited potential is gone and wasted.”

“It bothers me that you can’t even tell me why.”

Dickson, who is 20, remained silent as his uncle and another stepsister stood in court, tears in their eyes. He did not move, holding his hands in front of him, as his mother, Patricia Dickson, sobbed in the courtroom.

“Thank you for accepting my plea, and I apologize to the families,” Dickson said.

Tenth Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams said the Dickson and Hurtado families both argued against pushing for the death penalty in the case. She said the families thought a lifelong jail sentence would be more of a punishment to Dixon than even a death sentence.

“I want him to remember his little brother, his father … I want him to remember,” said Nadine Salazar, as she stared at her stepbrother.

The hearing was the end to a case that began April 26, 2008, and according to prosecutors, defense attorneys and investigators was unusual because of Dickson’s apparent lack of motive.

Adams said there were some incidents in the weeks before the slayings that hinted at trouble.

Dickson had been kicked out of an apartment in Anderson for stealing a roommate’s credit card. His girlfriend had broken up with him. When he tried to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, he scored too low on the entrance exam to get in — something he later lied about to friends. He stole about $600 in change from his father.

And there was tension in his parents’ home when he moved back in and wasn’t working.

“Nothing really rises to the level of explaining why this happened that day,” Adams said. “This was a family that loved each other.”

Even in his confession to police in the hours after the slayings, Dickson did not explain why he shot his family.

“I don’t know why I killed my family today,” Dickson said in the statement. “Once I loaded that shotgun and shot Maritza, I could not stop and I did not stop until I shot them all. It hurts inside and I really can’t believe it’s real. I am concerned how all of this may affect my enlistment in the Marine Corps. I am sorry for all the trouble I have caused. It just hurts inside.”

In the statement, which the solicitor read at the hearing, Dickson said he and his father had a disagreement around 2 a.m. that Saturday, because he had come in too late. After a “fitful” night of sleep, Dickson woke, went to his brother’s closet for some clothes and found a 12-gauge shotgun his brother used to hunt squirrels.

Dickson picked up the gun, loaded it and found his stepmother and fired one round, killing her. As his stepsister ran to the kitchen, he followed her and shot her in the laundry room.

Then he found Taylor, yelling at him to stop. Dickson described knocking his brother out, only to come back later and shoot him in the head as Taylor cried for help.

In all, he reloaded the shotgun five times.

Dickson stalked his father, shooting him several times. He struck his final blow as his father called 911 for help. In his statement, Dickson said his father “rolled over and told me ‘I love you’ before I took my last shot at him.”

Dickson then left the house and drove to Belton where he spent the day riding four-wheelers with a friend, never mentioning what had happened in his home just hours before. Officers later tested Dickson and he was given a mental evaluation.

What authorities — including Dickson’s attorneys, Kurt Tavernier and Andy Potter — found was that Dickson was not drunk nor was he under the influence of any drug when he shot his family. A Greenville psychiatrist, Robert Richards, testified for the defense. He said he could not find evidence of a mental illness that would give attorneys grounds for an insanity defense.

Smh.com.au

September 22, 2009

A US man has confessed to stalking and methodically murdering four family members in their home, reloading his shotgun five times before firing the final shot into his father as the man said: "I love you."

Nathan Dickson, 20, pleaded guilty to four counts of murder as part of a deal that will allow him to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Adams read Dickson's confession in court. He had been arrested hours after the killings - spending the time before police found him riding four-wheelers with a friend.

Dickson said he woke up that Saturday morning and saw a shotgun while looking for some of his clothes in his 14-year-old brother's closet. The killing began when he shot his stepmother, Maritza Dickson, 41, while she was in bed talking to her daughter.

Dickson's stepsister, Jiliam Salazar, 19, was killed after running into the kitchen screaming.
 

He punched his brother, Taylor, in the head when he yelled at Dickson to stop, and shot him.

Dickson then went to father's bedroom to get more ammunition and shot his brother again.
 

The second shot went into Taylor's head as he was sprawled across a chair crying for help, according to the confession.

Dickson's father was out of the house when the killings began. Dickson said he shot him first in their back yard, then, after going to the bedroom to get another shell, shot him again at the edge of the front yard.
 

After firing the last shot at his brother and getting one final shell, Dickson said he went to the front yard and confronted his father, who had called police.

"He rolled over and told me, 'I love you' right before I took my last shot at him," Dickson wrote in his confession, adding he then slammed the stock of the shotgun into his father's head like a club because he was still breathing.

Adams said she decided not to pursue the death penalty because the victims' relatives were strongly opposed to it, and because Dickson had no criminal record and was 18 at the time of the murders.

While Dickson vividly recounted the killings for nearly two weeks afterwards, he cannot remember them now, his lawyers said.
 

But Adams said the confession matched physical evidence, right down to how many times the victims were shot.

Dickson had several problems just before the killings. The Marines rejected him, but he told people he had already served in the military. Money went missing from his house and he had just broken up with his girlfriend, Adams said.

But Dickson called his father his hero on his MySpace page and friends told investigators he appeared to get along well with his stepmother and stepsister. He was a decent student in high school and well-liked by teachers and friends. There were no drugs or alcohol in his system, Adams said.

The confession gives no clues.

"I don't know why I killed all my family today. Once I loaded that shotgun and shot Maritza I couldn't stop and I did not stop until I had shot them all," Dickson wrote, adding he was concerned it would affect his chances of enlisting in the Marines.

The confession also includes what Dickson did after the killings. He threw the gun into the woods, put on sandals and drove to a nearby convenience store for water and smokeless tobacco. He then bought a chicken biscuit with his stepsister's debit card, but was so sick he ate only two bites. Then he rode four-wheelers with a friend.

Dickson apologised after pleading guilty.

He also liked to play a shoot-em-up video game called Army of Two, and ride four wheelers -- which he spent the day doing Saturday after his father, brother, step-mother and step-sister were killed, said his friend, Brantley Creel.

Creel, who has been friends with Dickson since high school, said the buddy he nicknamed "Rocky" was a "normal" guy who liked to joke around, hoped to become an electrician and never showed any violent tendencies.

"I’ve seen this dude at school just push him to the edge and all he would do was just cut up and make a joke and turn it right around on him," Creel said. "He wasn’t a violent kind."

Creel believes the 19-year-old is innocent. "In my head, I really don’t think he done it," Creel said.

Dickson and Creel had spent their evenings together for most of the week prior to the shootings, Creel said.

The night before, the two friends had gone to a private firing range and practiced shooting .30-30’s and .22 rifles, Creel said. They had a friendly competition, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about Dickson’s demeanor, Creel said.

"That was about the only time he’s ever went shooting with me," Creel said. "But he enjoyed it."

They made plans to meet early the next morning to ride ATV’s near Creel’s home in Belton. They were supposed to have gotten together at 7 a.m. Dickson called at 9:17 a.m., Creel said, to ask if he still wanted to go riding.

"I told him, yeah. Come on down," Creel said. "He said he’d be there in 45 minutes."

Dickson then drove a gold-colored Jeep Cherokee to nearby Spinnakers Exxon and bought three bottles of Propel water and a can of Grizzly straight snuff, according to Amanda Tripp, who said she checked his ID and noticed his name before selling him the tobacco.

A video taken at the store shows a young man taking a few sips of one of the bottles of the fitness drink while still standing at the counter. He was a regular customer of the store, Tripp said.

"He went on about his way like nothing ever happened," Tripp said. "He come in here as normal as could be."

Anderson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Susann Griffin said investigators haven’t seen the video and couldn’t confirm whether it was Dickson or comment on it because it is "part of our ongoing investigation."

Moments before, his father, Samuel Andrew Dickson, 46; brother, Taylor Alex Dickson, 14; step-mother Maritza Hurtado, 46; and step-sister, Melissa Jiliam Salazar, 19, had been brutally killed at their Pine Lake Estates home.

Anderson County Deputy Coroner Don McCown said the father was shot outside, while running away from the house. Dickson’s step-sister was found in the laundry room. McCown wouldn’t say what part of the house the other two were found.

Authorities remained tight-lipped about the investigation as the case began drawing international attention.

The two males had multiple wounds from a shotgun -- McCown wouldn’t say what gauge or who owned the gun -- and the women died of a single shot. He was continuing the investigation on the women’s bodies. The male’s bodies had been turned over to Robinson Funeral Home, he said.

There was no evidence of a struggle at the home, apparently nothing was stolen -- and authorities know of no motive Dickson would have had for killing his family.

Dickson arrived at Creel’s home, at about 10 a.m. -- barely an hour after his family was killed -- and went to Hardee’s for breakfast before spending the day riding four-wheelers, Creel said.

Creel’s girlfriend, Brittaney Frady, joined them and rode with Creel as they explored trails near where Creel lives with his grandfather, James "Moose" Philyaw, on Calhoun Road in Belton, he said.

"At one point in the day we stopped at a river to kind of cool off a little bit. That was the only point in the day he was really quiet," Creel said. "He said ‘I got a feeling something bad was happening.’"

But after that, "Everything was fine. He was back to his normal self."

They returned to Creel’s house at about 7 p.m., changed clothes and drove to Ingles to buy some steaks to grill, Creel said. They had skipped lunch and were hungry, he said.

While they were at the grocery store, Creel’s grandfather called and told him they should come home because it was about to rain.

Creel said he thought it was strange that his grandfather was making such an issue of it because he knew they often left the vehicles outside in the rain.

"By the time we drove up, there was cops everywhere," he said.

Still, Dickson appeared unshaken, Creel said. Authorities separated the two of them, and that was the last he saw of his friend, other than his court appearance on TV Sunday.

"He seemed like really scared. It didn’t look like the Nathan I knew," he said.

The two had been lab partners studying electronics at Anderson District 1 and 2 Career and Technology Center, Creel said. Creel attended Belton-Honea Path High, and Dickson went to Wren.

"He was just kind of a joker," Creel recalled. "He was always cutting jokes and acting goofy and stuff like that, but nothing about his family."

Their friendship grew stronger as they helped each other through school.

"Without him I would fail. Without me he would fail," he said.

After school, they would often play video games. Dickson’s favorite was Army of Two. But there was nothing out of the ordinary about his interest in a popular violent game, Creel said.

Dickson worked at a McDonald’s in Anderson after graduating and had moved back home a couple of weeks ago, Creel said.

Dickson had broken up with his girlfriend recently but didn’t seem overly troubled about it, Creel said.

"He said he was upset about it, but he didn’t act like it bothered him," Creel said. "He just acted like, ‘Whatever, I’ll get another one later.’"

He also had been upset about a dispute with his roommate, which led to his moving back home with his family, Creel said. The roommate had accused Dickson of stealing some money from him, Creel said.

"He ain’t one to steal," Creel said. "I’ve left my wallet laying around."

Dickson told him he liked being back home with his family, Creel said.

"He said his dad made him get back in Tri-County Tec to stay there," he said. "He went and signed up that week."

He didn’t talk about his stepmother or stepsister but admired his dad’s skills as an electrician and seemed to have a good relationship with his brother, Creel said.

"Just that day, when we was eating breakfast at Hardee’s, he was cutting up about his little brother," Creel said. "So I mean, that’s part of the reason I just don’t see him doing it."

Dickson had told him Friday that he was planning to get a degree in electronics and wanted to work for Duke Power, he said.

"That’s what I’m saying, this dude, he had his plan set up for the future and everything," Creel said. "I just don’t see him doing that."

Creel said he believes Dickson is innocent, but he added, "Now that I think about it, it kind of scares me.

"It’s something you never expect to happen to you. It just blows my mind."

By Ron Barnett - GreenvilleOnline.com

April 30, 2008

She says she checked his ID and noticed his name -- Nathaniel Dickson -- before selling him the tobacco.

A video taken at the store shows a young man taking a few sips of one of the bottles of the fitness drink while still standing at the counter. He was a regular customer of the store, Tripp said.

"He went on about his way like nothing ever happened," Tripp said. "He come in here as normal as could be."

Anderson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Susann Griffin said investigators haven't seen the video and couldn’t confirm whether it was Dickson or comment on it because it’s "part of our ongoing investigation."

Just moments before, his father, Samuel Andrew Dickson, 46; brother, Taylor Alex Dickson, 14; step-mother Maritza Hurtado, 46; and step-sister, Melissa Jiliam Salazar, 19, had been brutally murdered at their Pine Lake Estates home.

By Pearce Adams - IndependentMail.com

April 28, 2008