JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 21-year-old man accused in a fatal Christmas Day shooting in 2022 will be sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Talon McClary was originally charged with second-degree murder when he was arrested in February 2023 in the shooting death of 21-year-old Baron Dixon.
Dixon was found in his car on the Westside suffering from gunshot wounds. He died at the scene.
Dixon left behind a fiancée and a young son.
Dixon’s family told News4JAX that he was on his way home after buying a car from McClary when McClary pursued and shot him on Normandy Boulevard.
Initially, McClary told police that Dixon came to his house to look at a BMW but took the keys and drove off without paying, and then McClary followed Dixon in a Lexus.
However, according to a court order denying a “Stand Your Ground” motion from McClary, what he told detectives was a lie.
The court found that Dixon brought money to purchase the BMW and there was no plan to rob McClary.
“There is no evidence in the record that supports the Defendant’s allegation of a robbery other than his self-serving statement in the 911 call,” the order reads.
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McClary had tried to say that Dixon was armed, but multiple witnesses and investigators refuted that during their testimony.
The court said McClary even lied about what vehicle he was driving during the shooting. Evidence revealed that he fired the fatal shot from a Mercedes, not a Lexus.
“His representation that he was driving a vehicle other than the one involved in the shooting and his effort to conceal the firearm demonstrate a consciousness of guilt,” the order said of McClary.
According to court documents, on the night of the shooting, Dixon was driven to meet McClary by a friend so that Dixon could buy a car from McClary. The friend testified that Dixon paid for the car, and then he and Dixon left in their vehicles.
The friend told the court that after they drove away, Dixon texted him, saying something was wrong with the car he’d just bought from McClary.
The friend said that’s when he saw a white Mercedes racing to catch up with them.
Surveillance videos show both the exchange between Dixon and McClary when Dixon purchased the car, and McClary speeding after Dixon in the Mercedes.
Court records show McClary fired a shot at Dixon from the Mercedes, killing him.
McClary faces the potential of decades in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.