Dr. Elizabeth Peavy, a Houston dentist, stopped at a convenience store on her way home on May 15, 1994. As she was leaving the store, Tony Tyrone Dixon and several accomplices stopped her and demanded her car keys. When she refused, Dixon shot her and left the scene. A few minutes later, Dixon returned, shot Peavy three more times and finally did steal her car.

Texas leads the world in killing juvenile offenders

Dallas Morning News

October 10, 2004

Tony Tyrone Dixon, 17, fatally shot a woman - a dentist who provided free treatment to the poor at neighborhood clinics - during a 1994 Houston carjacking.

An IQ of 54

It was a brutal and senseless slaying, an innocent and productive life snuffed for a brief joyride in a red Thunderbird. But a transcript of the interrogation by Houston police indicated that the murderer had only a dim notion of what he had done.

Sgt. J.W. Belk: "Do you understand she's no longer?"

Dixon: "Killed?"

Belk: "Yeah, you killed her. She's not alive anymore. She's dead. You understand that? Did you know that she was dead? Well, why are you crying?"

Dixon: "Huh?"

Belk: "You know she died right there, Tony, after you shot her. And that's why you're charged with murder.

Dixon: "You know if she gots any, she got kids?"

3 years earlier, Mr. Dixon's IQ had been tested at 54. A score of 70 or below is generally considered to indicate retardation. Born to a 13-year-old rape victim, he could not read or write at 17 and lived at a home for the mentally disabled.