3 men sentenced for murder of Hall County Sheriff’s Deputy Blane Dixon
London Clements, Hector Garcia-Solis, and Eric Velazquez (Hall County Sheriff's Office)
GAINESVILLE, Ga. - The three men convicted of murder in the death of a northeast Georgia sheriff’s deputy who was killed during a shootout last week were sentenced to life during a hearing in Hall County on Thursday.
Hector Garcia-Solis was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and Eric Velazquez and London Clements were sentenced to life with 30 of those to be served behind bars in connection to the shooting death of Hall County Sheriff’s Deputy Blane Dixon.
Last week, Garcia-Solis and his cousin Velazquez were found guilty of malice murder in the fatal 2019 shooting of Dixon. Clements was found guilty of the less serious charge of felony murder.
Deputy Blane Dixon (Hall County Sheriff's Office)
The three were also found guilty in a series of burglaries and car thefts in the days leading up to the car chase and a shootout with police in a Gainesville neighborhood on July 7, 2019.
Garcia-Solis admitted on the stand that he fired the shots that killed Dixon, saying Tuesday in testimony that "It was me," under questioning by his own lawyer. His lawyers later argued that the state had failed to prove Garcia-Solis was seeking to kill anyone, and thus the man wasn’t guilty of malice murder.
SEE ALSO: Teen testifies against other defendants in Hall deputy's 2019 murder
A Hall County judge sentences three men for their roles in the 2019 shooting death of Deputy Blane Dixon on July 8, 2021. (FOX 5)
Judge Jason Deal, who has been on the bench since 2005, told the court he can count on one hand the number of times he has sentenced someone to life without parole.
"It's in this case, are very rare. I don't think we've had a law enforcement officer killed in Hall County in over a hundred and 40 years or something. It is very rare. And the law considered the murder of a law enforcement officer one of the aggregating factors that can get you the death penalty if you're 18," the judge told the court.
All three defendants were 17 at the time of the shooting and were not eligible for the death penalty.
A fourth defendant, Brayan Cruz, was not tried alongside the other three. He testified against the other defendants last week. Darragh didn’t say how prosecutors would handle charges against Cruz.
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