The DeKalb County Grand Jury returned two first-degree murder indictments against a 44-year-old Mcminnville man last week in August shooting deaths of two local men.
David Howard Dixon was named in a sealed indictment last Monday, and now faces charges that he murdered Ervin Raymon Beacham, 55, and 43-year-old Jose Sagahon Ticante.
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Beacham was found shot to death on a couch inside his residence on Tommy Harrell Street on Aug. 7, and Ticante’s body was found hidden beneath a tarp in a pile of lumber behind the home soon afterward, also the apparent victim of a gunshot wound.
Dixon was reportedly picked up after the murders on Aug. 7, and has been held in the DeKalb County Jail without bond since then on violation of probation and failure to appear charges.
Dan Friel of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation presented the case against Dixon to the grand jury.
Neither the TBI nor Smithville police have disclosed any details of the case since the day of the murders.
Dixon was apparently already well known to local authorities, having been charged in the past with violations including manufacture and delivery of a Schedule IV controlled substance, possession of a handgun while under the influence, assault, aggravated assault, domestic assault, public intoxication, violation of an order of protection, theft and simple possession in this county.
The TBI investigated the murders in cooperation with the Smithville Police Department, DeKalb County Sheriff's Office and the 13th Judicial District Attorney General's Office.
Dixon is under a $200,000 bond and he will appear in DeKalb County Criminal Court for arraignment on Dec. 10.