Judge dismisses Athens shooting case

By Joe Johnson

A Superior Court judge has dismissed charges against a 39-year-old Athens man who had been arrested for allegedly shooting another man four years ago.

Antwon Maurice Dixon was arrested in 2024 for the shooting that occurred two years earlier in which police said he used a .380-caliber pistol to shoot Michael Sims three times in the lower abdomen during an incident on Lombardy Circle.

He was charged and subsequently indicted for aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime.

Then in March of this year, the district attorney filed a motion to dismiss all charges on the grounds they couldn’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The motion states:

“A witness on scene alleged that the defendant was the suspect. In subsequent interviews with the victim, he claims to know the defendant and says that the defendant was not the individual responsible.”

Judge Lawton Stephens approved the motion and dismissed the case.