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A PhD student and employee of the University of Notre Dame will have time to think about her decisions in prison after she was found kneeling at the foot of the body of a recent divorcee she was seeing while holding a murder weapon in DC, federal authorities announced.
Nijinsky Dix, 40, of South Bend, Indiana, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for fatally shooting 44-year-old Terry Hickman in Southwest DC while the pair was casually dating.
According to prosecutors, on Nov. 14, 2020, Metropolitan Police Department officers were called to the 1000 block of 4th Street SW, where there were reports of gunshots inside a building.
When officers arrived, they found Dix holding a .9mm handgun and kneeling at the feet of Hickman's body, who was lying face down on the floor after being shot multiple times in the head and body.
Investigators say that Dix met Hickman at a bar in Indiana in February 2020, and the two were involved in a casual pandemic relationship that spanned several months following his divorce.
When Hickman advised Dix that he had no interest in a long-term relationship, things took a turn for the worse, as prosecutors say that she "could not accept the boundaries."
She began to insert herself into Hickman's life against his wishes, reaching out to members of his family for support and advice, offering them money, trips, and jewelry to both he and his daughter.
Hickman sought to end the toxic relationship in August 2020, blocking her number and asking her not to contact him, however, Dix's "obsession" continued into the fall that year, when she became jealous of another woman she believed had caught his eye.
Dix would later advise a family member that she purchased a gun in Florida before unexpectedly flying from Indiana to DC and showing up at Hickman's apartment unannounced.
Prosecutors said that in November 2020, Dix texted a friend and expressed anger that Hickman might be using a business acquaintance to have a relationship with another woman.
According to court documents, she wrote: "I will (expletive) him up if he tries to connect me with a broad he’s trying to (expletive) or has (expletive. I will kill him. Literally.”
Two days later, she left Indiana with a passport, checked an unloaded firearm and a box of .9mm ammo in her luggage and traveled to Southwest DC, where she rented a car, drove to Hickman's home, and fatally shot him after a confrontation.
In February, Dix pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed.
Following her prison term, a judge also ordered that Dix serve five years of supervised release.
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