HUNTINGTON BEACH : Woman’s Murder Conviction Reduced

A judge has reduced the first-degree murder conviction of Dixie Ann Dyson in the stabbing death of her common-law husband to second-degree murder because of her agreement to testify against her two co-conspirators.

Dyson, 46, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin on Friday to 15 years to life in prison instead of 25 years to life.

Dyson denied at her trial two years ago that she was involved in the 1984 stabbing death of Mel Dyson, 30, at their Huntington Harbour condominium. But a few months after the trial, she agreed to cooperate with the authorities, who had already stated in court papers that they suspected her boyfriend, Enrico Vasquez, as a conspirator in the murder.

Dyson told police that she and Vasquez, 33, planned the murder to gain more than $200,000 in her husband’s life insurance. She said they hired George Ira Lamb, 27, of the Bronx, N.Y., to carry it out. Dyson claimed that Lamb killed her husband. She said she then helped Lamb escape past the security gate at the condominium complex by hiding him in the trunk of her car.

Vasquez was convicted of first-degree murder. Lamb was acquitted on the murder charge but was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, which carries the same penalty. Both Vasquez and Lamb were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Dyson had been the key witness against both of them.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles J. Middleton argued before Judge McCartin, who reduced her sentence on the prosecution’s recommendation, that the other two convictions would not have been possible without Dyson’s cooperation.

Dyson was arrested in 1986 on the eve of a hearing in which she was to try to force the insurance companies to pay off on the victim’s life insurance policy. Shortly before her arrest, the police had intercepted a letter she had sent to Vasquez in New York, which stated: “Take care and don’t get careless. They (the police) are still out there.”