Woman to serve 20 for poisoning
RIDGELAND — A Florence woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to poisoning an elderly man in Ridgeland with fentanyl.
The woman, Dixie Cheyenne White, 31, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault as a habitual offender and was sentenced to serve twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole, , Madison County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced last week.
“It is a miracle the 84-year-old victim in this case survived unknowingly ingesting fentanyl,” Bramlett said. “The Defendant could have easily killed this elderly man in her attempt to knock him out so she could rob him blind.”
On June 14, 2023, the Ridgeland Police Department received a call about an elderly man who was suffering from a drug overdose, Bramlett said.
“The man claimed he had been poisoned by a woman named Dixie and that she had stolen his car,” Bramlett said.
The victim stated he had met Dixie at the Food Depot in Jackson, and she offered to come back to his house to work on his truck with him.
When he was released from the hospital, investigators met with him again and discovered that his iPhone, two handguns, and two credit cards were also missing. Using tag readers throughout the area, investigators were able to locate the stolen vehicle back at the Food Depot with several people inside, including Dixie White, Bramlett said.
White matched the suspect in the surveillance video obtained from the Food Depot on the date the elderly man stated he had been poisoned.
Bramlett said White was taken into custody and interviewed regarding her knowledge of the stolen car.
She confessed to investigators that she had met the elderly man and convinced him she could work on his truck. She stated that later that night she had poured some fentanyl in a soda drink so he would go to sleep, Bramlett said. When he was asleep, she stole his guns, credit cards, and car.
“I want to commend the investigators of the Ridgeland Police Department for all the work they did to ensure his property was located and the person responsible was apprehended,” Bramlett said.