A preliminary hearing has been set for 1 p.m. Nov. 16 in San Juan County Magistrate Court for an Arizona man accused of first-degree murder in San Juan County.
Francisco Vasquez Jr., 29, was extradited from Douglas, Arizona, and was booked on Oct. 19 into the San Juan County Detention Center, where he is being held for the Aug. 9, 2021, killing of William “Billy” Dixon.
The arrest affidavit reads like a crime drama filled with drug use, sexual assault and murder.
The narrative begins Aug. 9, 2021, when Francine Ross stopped at Billy Dixon’s house, at 60 County Road 3400. She had just left the casino, and the two “smoked weed and meth together,” according to the affidavit.
Ross stated that Dixon exposed himself to her, but she looked away and remained at the house. A while later, while still there, “a Hispanic male, younger and ‘somewhat cute’” came to the door and “asked for drugs,” the affidavit states.
Dixon reportedly said he did not have any and Ross stated that she “offered him a hit out of the meth pipe she was holding.” The man identified himself as Cisco, who was later identified as Vazquez, and “shook her hand briefly,” the affidavit states.
Cisco went outside and Dixon followed. This was when Ross said she “hear two gunshots” with one that “echoed longer.” Then there were footsteps, a car door slammed and a car left the scene, according to the affidavit.
Ross reportedly picked up her cellphone and left. When she went outside she saw Dixon “on the ground and his head looked deformed,” reportedly from being shot in the head. She left the scene, the affidavit states.
Ross shared the information with San Juan County Sheriff’s investigators two years after the homicide. It was Dixon’s phone that she picked up when she left the home that day, and she was with tampering with evidence for taking it. Detectives questioned her on July 20, 2023, the affidavit states.
The detectives asked her if she had any more information about Dixon’s death, and Ross reportedly told them that she heard from Kelly Standifer that “a female named Nora and her boyfriend killed Billy because Billy raped Nora,” the affidavit states.
Sheriff’s detectives questioned Standifer, who corroborated Ross’ story by telling them that a man named Cisco was picked up by Nora in Phoenix and she brought him back to Farmington, the affidavit states.
Standifer then reportedly told detectives that Cisco came to his house “crying” and told him “that Nora talked him into killing Billy,” because he and two other men reportedly “were all drugging women and raping them,” and one was reportedly Nora, the affidavit stated.
Standifer provided a description of Cisco, which matched the description provided by Ross, so the detectives began looking into Nora, who was later identified as Nola. They secured a search warrant for her Facebook accounts and looked at messages sent through the social media network from 2021 around the time of Dixon’s death. It was through Facebook that detectives learned “Cisco” was Francisco Vasquez, the affidavit states.
When they questioned Nola at a Howard Johnson Motel in Albuquerque, she also reportedly told the detectives that Vasquez “killed Billy.” She also told them that Dixon drugged and raped her and “he got what he deserved for raping numerous girls,” the affidavit states.
Sheriff’s detectives located Vasquez in prison in Douglas, Arizona, and went there on Aug. 22, to interview him. Vasquez reportedly admitted he went by the name “Cisco” and that he was in Farmington in 2021.
Vasquez reportedly told the detective he got a gun from a man at the Farmington Inn and went to Dixon’s home. He reportedly “demonstrated how he was holding a gun in his right hand inside front hoodie pocket,” according to the affidavit.
He also reportedly confessed to the homicide saying, “I did it man, he’s a rapist, he raped my home girl! So I went over there and I smoked him! I gave him two to his head! Boom boom,” the affidavit states.
Vasquez was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm or destructive device by a felon.
