What Is Dr Joseph Sonnier Dateline? Murder Of Ex Wife Becky Gallegos Details

A well-known pathologist in Texas, Dr. Joseph Sonnier, passed away in July 2012. and his shocking case is still in the news.

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A new Dateline program will explore Dr. Joseph’s case in August 2022.  The well-liked NBC program Dateline recalls in-depth true crime incidents over the years

Sonnier’s case was scheduled to make its Dateline debut on Saturday, August 13, 2022, at 9 p.m. EST.

Dr. Joseph’s death is discussed in the program, which also includes interviews with the landscapers Becky Shurbet and Nathan Gilmore, who discovered his body in 2012.

Dr. Sonnier was shot and stabbed to death on July 10, 2012. He was then found dead by his landscapers the next day in his Lubbock, Texas, home in 2012.

According to the police, he was brutally stabbed roughly eleven times and shot five times.

Dr. Michael Dixon hired a man named Paul Reynolds to kill  Dr. Joseph Sonnier, who was dating Dixon’s ex-girlfriend, Richelle Shetina.

David Shepard, who was staying with Paul Reynolds at the time, allegedly said that he killed someone nearby when Paul Reynolds called the police.

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He received three silver bars from Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon in exchange for the murder and a box of pricey Cuban cigars. Shepard chose not to dispute the allegation of capital murder and gave false testimony against Dixon; as a result, to avoid being put to death.

When Dixon was put on trial for the murder of Sonnier in 2014, Shepard changed his story while testifying, stating Dixon had nothing to do with the crime and that he committed it on his own.

He tried the following year again, with Reynolds testifying in place of Shepard after the judge declared a mistrial due to the trial’s hung jury.

Later, in November 2015 Dixon was found guilty on two charges of capital murder and given a life sentence without the possibility of release.

But in a shocking change of events, the 7th District Court of Appeals in Amarillo, Texas, overturned the judgment and gave him a new trial in December 2018.

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Becky Gallegos, Sonnier’s ex-wife, was shot and killed on July 12, 2010, by her second husband, who then turned the gun on himself.

Her 62-year-old husband, Fermin Juan Gallegos, was transported to University Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where he eventually passed away.

According to Gillespie County Sheriff’s Department detectives, Mr. Gallegos fatally shot his wife and the dog, called 911 to report the crime, and then turned the gun on himself. They claimed that a marital conflict was the driving force behind the shooting.

When he was just 19 years old, Dr. Joseph Sonnier wed Becky Gallegos, his high school sweetheart. They had two sons Dallas and James Sonnier,. They adopted a third boy, Phillip Prestwood, whom Sonnier considered a son. 

Dixon was released on bail for $2 million when his case was dismissed, which he promptly paid.

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He was later let out of jail on January 28, 2019, but the Seventh Court of Appeals justices cancelled his bail in April 2020, putting him back in jail.

According to KLTV, an affiliate of ABC, the court issued a ruling in January 2022 that will keep him imprisoned for the rest of his life.

He was cleared of the first count of capital murder, but the first count was upheld, according to KLTV, therefore he will continue to serve his life without parole term for Sonnier’s murder.

According to ABC News, over time, it has been claimed that Dixon’s jealousy of Sonnier’s girlfriend, Richelle Shetina, with whom he had an affair in 2010, resulted to the murder.

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