A simple offender search was all it took to find that, Michael Antonio Dixon Jr., the man charged with killing 4-year-old Cedric Francois, has a criminal history of assault.
Dixon was incarcerated for two months, in 2009, after convictions for ASSAULT ON PUBLIC OFFICIAL (PRINCIPAL) a CLASS A1 MISDEMEANOR SS and SIMPLE ASSAULT/AFFRAY (PRINCIPAL) a CLASS 2 MISDEMEANOR SS.
It is unclear at this time, if Buncombe County DSS was aware of Dixon's criminal past.
Dixon has been charged with Felony Child Abuse and First Degree Murder in connection with the death of Cedric Francois, who died October 19, 2011. A preliminary autopsy discovered that Cedric Francois suffered blunt force trauma severe enough to cause brain hemmorrhaging.
According to the Application Warrant submitted to the court by the Asheville Police Department, Cedric Francois had numerous injuries, including bite marks. The warrant also states that the Buncombe County Department of Social Services had received a report of abuse on September 3, 2011 and that a social worker had visited the home September 30 and noted various injuries on the child, in various states of healing, but did not remove the child.
19 days later Cedric Francois was dead.
It is unknown at this time if Buncombe County DSS conducted any kind of back ground check on Dixon, who was named as the perpertrator of abuse in the report received by DSS, according to the warrant.
The child's mother, Taquita Roshell Francois, has not been charged in connect with her sons death, but did give conflicting stories of her location when the trauma occurred. On the 911 call, Francois states that she had ran to the neighbors for a moment, but in an interview later with the police, she stated that she was at work.
Police are deciding if Francois will face any charges in connection with Cedric Francois' death. Taquita Francois, has since left the state of North Carolina and is currently in Florida.
In an interview with WLOS ABC 13, neighbors are visibly heartbroken and furious, they say that Taquita Francois knew about the abuse Cedric Francois was enduring and failed to protect her son. Neighbor, Kendra Latham, states in the interview that Francois should be charged "with child neglect and endangerment in her sons death because she knew, "that her son had walked around with bruises, wearing bruises on a daily basis".
Neighbors also state, "that the Department of Social Services had investigated report of abuse, but no one stepped in to protect Cedric Francois", according to WLOS.
For more information on this case please visit Buncombe County DSS aware of abuse before child's death?
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