Man, 51, on Parole After '70s Md. Rape
By Allison Klein and Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 28, 2006
A 51-year-old convicted sex offender admitted that he killed a 15-year-old boy and dumped his body at a construction site in Northeast Washington, telling police the two had fought over a $10 purchase of crack cocaine, according to the prosecution's charging documents.
Robert J. Crosby has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Dominick A. Dixon, who was found at the construction site Monday afternoon wearing only his boxer shorts. Crosby was ordered held without bond yesterday by D.C. Superior Court Magistrate Judge Richard Ringell.
The D.C. medical examiner's office said yesterday that Dixon was killed by asphyxiation and ruled the case a homicide. D.C. police have been treating the case as a homicide since Dixon's body was found in the 1000 block of 51st Street.
Crosby has spent most of his adult life in Maryland prisons after being convicted in the mid-1970s of raping a 14-year-old girl in Baltimore, records show. He was released in 2004, and as a condition of his parole, was not permitted to have contact with anyone younger than 18 or to leave Maryland without permission, authorities said.
The D.C. medical examiner's office has not completed Dixon's autopsy, which would indicate whether he was sexually assaulted.
Dixon was one of five people, including three juveniles, found dead in a 24-hour stretch Sunday and Monday in the District. Last night, D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and others gathered for a vigil to remember the victims and decry the violence.
In the Dixon case, Crosby told police that on Sunday, he and Dixon were in a vacant house in the 5000 block of Lee Street NE, which is next to the site where Dixon's body was found, according to charging papers.
Crosby was buying $10 of crack from Dixon, but he believed that Dixon was shorting him and protested, the documents said. Crosby said Dixon drew a knife and tried to stab him, which sparked a fight that ended when Crosby wrapped a television cable around Dixon's neck and strangled him, according to the prosecutors' documents.
The charging papers quoted Crosby as saying he removed Dixon's clothes because he feared that his blood might have been left on them.
Crosby said he bit one of Dixon's ears and a finger during the fight, the documents said.
The charging papers provided other details about Crosby's alleged actions after the crime. Crosby told police that he left Dixon's body in the abandoned house until Monday morning, when he pushed it over a brick wall into a courtyard at the construction site. Crosby said he got rid of the knife in a sewer drain. Police later found it. They also found a coaxial cable in the vacant house.
Police took Crosby into custody after stopping him for a traffic violation Tuesday in the 5000 block of Lee Street. When they took him to the police station, he said he killed Dixon, charging documents said.
According to a report by the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency, Crosby has worked for a contractor in Silver Spring for six months.
After he was released from prison, Crosby told his Maryland parole agent that he wanted to move to the District, but D.C. officials denied the request, according to court authorities. It appears that he moved to the District without letting his parole agent know. D.C. police list his address as the 1000 block of 51st Street NE, and he was registered to vote in the District at that address.
Maryland parole workers believed that they were supervising him in Baltimore and that he was still living there, said Elizabeth Bartholomew, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation.
Crosby is on Maryland's sex offender registry, with his home address listed in Baltimore.
Crosby last reported to his parole agent Aug. 24, Bartholomew said. She said he was to report Sept. 14 but did not. His next appointment was to be today, and had he not reported, a warrant would have been issued for his arrest, she said.
Gloria Dixon has said she last saw her son Saturday. She reported him missing at 4 a.m. Monday, and a friend of the family found the body about seven hours later.
Dixon said she had talked to Crosby for about a half-hour after her son's body was found.
Crosby told her that he knew her son and that he was a good kid, she said. He then tried to comfort her, saying "If I hear anything, I'll let you know," Dixon said.
Dixon added, "He couldn't understand why anyone would do that to a nice young man."
Staff writers Allan Lengel and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
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