LONGVIEW, Texas — The mother of Panola County Deputy Chris Dickerson said her family’s lives have been “forever changed” after her son was murdered during that December 2019 traffic stop.
Sentencing continued Tuesday for Gregory Newson, of Shreveport, Louisiana, after he was convicted of capital murder for killing Dickerson as he made a routine patrol in the small community of Gary in Panola County around 2 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2019. The state is seeking the death penalty.
Chris Dickerson's mother Rebecca Dickerson, his widow Krista Dickerson Shows and former Panola County Sheriff Kevin Lake all took the stand to talk about the kind of man Chris Dickerson was and how the loss has impacted them.
Rebecca Dickerson testified that she raised her son and two daughters as a single mother and they called themselves the four musketeers. She testified that Chris was a jokester, but he would always help someone in need. He looked after his mother and sisters. He walked both of his sisters down the aisle in their weddings.
After his junior year of high school, he went off to basic training for the Army National Guard, and he was involved for eight years. He was a volunteer with the fire department, and it didn't surprise her that he wanted to go into law enforcement.
She said the loss of Chris changed her life tremendously.
"He was the middle kid, and he kept us all together," Rebecca Dickerson said.
Her 50th birthday passed, and her son wasn't there when he should've been.
"It's very hard without Chris. We have no option. We have to survive," Rebecca Dickerson said. "It makes me angry, but our lives have forever changed."
She told the jury she holds a blood drive every year on his birthday. She said that works with Concerns of Police Survivors, an organization that helps survivors and co-workers affected by line-of-duty death.
Shows testified her husband was an extremely involved parent and he embedded his oldest daughter, who is now 12, into his life so that he could spend as much time as possible with her.
She said he would often say his children would never carry the burden of not having an active father. The prosecution said now the children do, and Shows agreed.
Shows said that she and Chris had multiple conversations about how dangerous his job was, but never in a million years did she think that anything bad would happen.
"I didn't function for a while in the way that I should have. It took half of everything that I had because he was my 50 percent," Shows said regarding how she felt immediately after her husband’s death.
Chris Dickerson was fun and goofy with his kids all of the time, she said as the state showed photos of him with his children, receiving an award and coaching little league ball.
Lake testified that Chris Dickerson was a proactive law enforcement officer, and he always wanted to excel in whatever the area was. He wanted to learn from his mistakes.
Dickerson was one of three deputies who responded to a house fire. He went to the house and he saved the life of a woman and a family dog by going into the home as the fire was burning. Dickerson and the two other deputies received a life-saving award with the sheriff's office and multiple other awards, including Panola County Citizen of the Year, Lake testified.
Dickerson was nominated for an award from the White House, but he refused to go without the two other deputies because they were in it together, Lake said.
Lake told the jury Dickerson would go to his oldest daughter's first day of school every year. But since Dickerson died, the sheriff's office hasn't missed a first day of school yet in his honor.
Nacogdoches Police Department Sgt. Jacob Samford, who was Dickerson's partner at the time of the Dec. 31, 2019 traffic stop, testified that he considered Dickerson was one of his best friends. He told the jury about how they would often play friendly pranks on each other.
Samford said the loss of Dickerson took away a person that he could rely on and it also impacted Samford's young son, who was close with Dickerson, as well.
Jurors also learned about Newson’s text messages and social media posts along with parts of his criminal history on Tuesday.
Bryan Seales, sergeant at the Office of the Texas Attorney General, testified Newson texted another person, "ain't no one cop arresting me."
Newson said in a text he likes to drive at night because cops don't like to work at night. Another text showed that Newson wrote a song about a Range Rover and drugs.
The state then played an audio recording of Newson rapping over music. The lyrics were similar to the song he wrote via text message and it made mention of warning cops not to mess with him.
The state played a recording of a phone call that Newson made while in jail after he was arrested for shooting and killing Dickerson. In the call, Newson can be heard saying that Dickerson "got what he deserved." Newson told the other person on the phone that Dickerson was trying to kill him.
Texas Ranger Joshua Jenkins testified Newson posted a photo of multiple guns on Instagram and he captioned it, "I fell in love with the chopper," referring to one of the guns.
Based on his Instagram messages, Jenkins testified that he would describe Newson as a "wannabe rap artist." One rap song he wrote is titled "2 a.m.," and it mentions if a cop pulled him over, Newson would shoot the officer. The state noted that Dickerson was shot and killed around 2 a.m. during the traffic stop.
A Shreveport police officer testified about an armed robbery that Newson was involved with in 1993. The officer testified that Newson was among three people who shot and injured a pawn shop owner Brad Brittain during an attempted armed robbery. The officer said that Newson later pleaded guilty to the robbery charge.
Marty Brittain, the brother of Brad Brittain, testified his brother survived the shooting, but he never got past what happened.
The trial will resume at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
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