STARKVILLE — “I wasn’t counting them, but I do remember five shots. It could have been more, but I remember five shots,” Hailey Jackson Wells said on the witness stand Tuesday on the first day of the murder retrial of Dustin Nixon.
Nixon, 33, is charged with first-degree murder in the April 28, 2018, shooting death of Shawn Stricklin, 26, of Ackerman. Stricklin’s body was found in his vehicle near Longview, off Highway 12. Nixon was charged two days later.
Nixon’s case originally went to court in 2022, but it ended in a mistrial after new evidence from a toxicology report came back mid-trial, and neither side had the opportunity to review it.
Wells, Stricklin’s ex-girlfriend and witness to the shooting, testified Tuesday that she and Nixon had been together for most of the day leading up to the shooting. Both of them went to a camper Nixon owned. Later, Stricklin arrived, saying he was looking for her.
“I wasn’t doing anything, but I know that he would have thought that I was messing around on (Nixon),” Wells said.
Wells said she went into the camper’s bathroom, where she hid for several hours. She testified that she did methamphetamine and marijuana while in the bathroom. While she was still hiding, she said she heard five shots ring out in quick succession.
Defense Attorney Mark Jackson questioned Wells on her drug usage and Stricklin’s mental state during the incident, and the number of facts Wells was unable to remember while on the stand.
“There were a number of things during direct examination and cross examination that you said you didn’t remember or you didn’t know,” Jackson said. “Last tally was around 22 or 23 times.”
Assistant District Attorney Ben Rush argued during opening statements that Stricklin was fleeing for his life when he was shot. He also questioned Wells along those lines.
“Based on what you personally observed, did Shawn do anything to deserve … to be killed as he was running away from Mr. Nixon?” Rush asked.
Wells answered no. Rush then asked Wells about her drug usage, and she said that she has been sober for five years, since right after the incident.
The state will continue presenting its case on Wednesday.
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