Greyhound bus passenger who fled police during traffic stop receives sentence

Composite photo. Background: file photo of 5th District Courthouse, Cedar City, Utah, April 15, 2021, taken by Jeff Richards. Inset: Iron County Jail booking photo of Kristopher Cullen Dixon, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 30, 2022, courtesy of Iron County Sheriff's Office, St. George News / Cedar City News

CEDAR CITY — A man who fled from officers as they were checking Greyhound bus passengers during a recent traffic stop in Parowan has been sentenced in connection with the case.

Iron County Jail booking photo of Kristopher Cullen Dixon, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 30, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Iron County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News / Cedar City News

In 5th District Judge Matthew L. Bell’s courtroom in Cedar City on Monday morning, 29-year-old Kristopher Cullen Dixon pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawful use of a financial card, a third-degree felony.

As previously reported in St. George News / Cedar City News, Dixon ran from law enforcement officers as they were conducting a routine interdiction check at a truck stop in Parowan on Aug. 30. A short time later, he was apprehended in a nearby field, with the farm’s owner capturing the moment on video.

Dixon, who was represented by public defender Jeffery Slack, had been listed on Monday’s docket as being scheduled for a waiver hearing and detention review; instead, he agreed to enter a guilty plea as part of an agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced immediately thereafter.

Under the plea deal, three other charges against Dixon were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they were permanently dropped. Those counts, all of which were misdemeanors, involved unlawful possession of a weapon, failure to stop at command of police and providing false identification to a peace officer.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Bell stayed the maximum penalties associated with the felony charge involving the misuse of the financial card and instead sentenced Dixon to 45 days in jail plus 36 months of court-supervised probation. Dixon also was ordered to pay a fine of $1,053, payable in $50 per month installments starting in November, the judge said.

Dixon was given credit for time served, meaning he’ll be eligible for release from Iron County Jail in mid-October, after which he’ll be able to return to his home state of Oklahoma. He reportedly has active criminal warrants there, according to prosecutors.

Bell also ordered that Dixon keep his contact information up to date with the court and scheduled a probation review hearing for Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. Dixon may participate in that virtual hearing by telephone or video call, the judge said.

Should Dixon decide to appeal his sentence, he has 30 days to do so by filing a written notice, the judge added.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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