Ex-East Texas Officer Gets Life Term for Slaying Police Chief

BELTON (AP) – A former Texas law enforcement officer who worked for several East Texas agencies must serve life in prison without parole for the 2014 killing of Little River-Academy police Chief Lee Dixon. David Gene Risner was sentenced Wednesday night in Belton. Jurors on June 6 convicted Risner of capital murder, but deadlocked on whether he deserved the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of parole. A judge then sentenced the 59-year-old Risner to life behind bars. Dixon was fatally shot in June 2014 while responding to a report of an armed man. Dixon was the only police officer in Little River-Academy, a town of about 2,000 located 60 miles northeast of Austin. Risner formerly was a police officer in Edgewood, Gun Barrel City and Grand Saline, plus worked for the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office.