The crime was a psychological nightmare.
In 2023, Theodosha Hayes started receiving menacing emails, unsolicited photos of male genitalia and text messages threatening sexual violence against her and her daughter.
They came from fake email addresses and burner phones. But the stalker did not stop there. He also sent messages to her co-workers, former colleagues and fellow churchgoers.
More than a year after her nightmare began, Hayes confronted her stalker, Eugene Dixon, on Friday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. She said she wanted to share her experience to help others understand the importance of documenting evidence and remaining vigilant during vulnerable points in their lives.
“I’m so much stronger for this having gone through it,” said Hayes, 45, of Baltimore County, who was an anchor at WBAL-TV from 2017-2023, in an interview. “This pain has a purpose.”
Circuit Judge Stacy A. Mayer listened to her statement but later decided to push back sentencing until next week so Dixon can be released from the Baltimore County Detention Center directly into a behavioral health program.
Mayer thanked Hayes for addressing the court and commended her for bravery.
Dixon, 57, of Belcamp, pleaded guilty to one count of electronic communication harassment. The two had become friends after communicating on Instagram and connecting over religion.
He told Baltimore County Police that he did not know why he committed the crime. “It was stupid,” Dixon said. “I was just trying to bring her closer.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Vania Legall recommended a sentence that was a combination of jail time and probation.
Dixon has been locked up for 157 days. He has prior convictions in New York for identity theft, assault and criminal mischief, Legall said.
His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Allison Friedman, said her client recognizes that he needs help and lost a lot of friends because of what he’s done.
Friedman pushed for him to be released to a behavioral health center.
“Mr. Dixon wants to avail himself to the program,” Friedman said. “He is taking responsibility for his actions.”
In her statement, Hayes said she lived in fear for eight months while a man who was supposed to be a Christian mentor “concocted a web of lies to keep me terrorized and in need of help so that he could stay in my life as some knight in shining armor.”
Fellow church members as well as her 18-year-old daughter attended the court proceedings in support of her. Hayes recently started volunteering at a nonprofit organization, Just Stalking: Resources.
Dixon, she said, claimed to have hired an attorney and retained a private investigator to investigate the threatening emails and texts. None of that was true.
He also impersonated people in her life.
At one point, Hayes said, she decided to learn how to shoot. He went with her to the gun range.
To this day, Hayes said, she finds it difficult to trust people and fears checking her personal email.
Because she’s called to do so, Hayes said, she forgives him. She said she hopes that he receives help.
“For your soul, I hope God forgives you,” she said, “but physically while you serve your time, I hope you are feeling every bit of the torture you inflicted on me while you sit in your cell where you belong.”
Dixon, she said, prayed with her in the name of Jesus that police would solve the crime.
Detectives did crack the case. And they figured out that, all along, he was the perpetrator.
