Teen gets prison time for role in great grandmother’s death

Dixie Chaney Jones, a 71-year-old great grandmother, stayed alive long enough to help police track down her killers.

Writhing on a West Las Vegas sidewalk with a gunshot to her abdomen, she described the gunman and the car he jumped in before it sped away.

“It hurts,” she told police and she rolled back and forth on her side. “It hurts.”

On Thursday, a judge ordered the driver of that car, 17-year-old Fabian Diaz, to serve 8 to 20 years in prison for his role in the Sept. 28, 2013, slaying.

Diaz apologized in court, as members of his family and Jones’ family watched.

Jason Chaney, one of Jones’s grandsons, said he forgave the defendant, “but everybody ain’t going to do that.”

Constonce Chaney, the victim’s daughter, later said “only God can forgive him, not me.”

“You think you can just take things from people,” she said, occasionally breaking into tears during the sentencing. “You can’t do that. You destroyed your life and mine. And it’s just unnecessary… Sorry doesn’t cut it. … It wasn’t my mamma’s time. It wasn’t.”

The seventh of 10 siblings, Jones had three children, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, family members said.

She was carrying just $4 in her purse that late September evening, wearing an Orleans windbreaker, while walking a block from her home near H Street and Monroe Avenue, authorities said.

Jones was raised in Las Vegas in the ′50s and still lived in the small family house on G Street with a few close relatives.

That night, William Copeland and Diaz wanted to make some “quick money,” police said. Riding in the passenger seat of Diaz’s car, Copeland told him to pull over when he saw Jones’ purse. Diaz turned off his headlights and rolled toward the curb.

Copeland hopped out and demanded Jones’ purse, but she refused, pulling the bag closer to her chest and telling Copeland she had a gun, too, according to court records.

That’s when Copeland stepped back and fired five shots, at least one of them striking Jones in the abdomen. He told detectives he was afraid she would shoot him.

Relatives said she didn’t own a gun, and she was probably trying to ward off Copeland.

A retired casino worker, Jones graduated from Rancho High School, lived in Texas for a few years and was a “Dallas Cowgirl,” according to relatives.

She died later on the night of the shooting, but not before describing the gunman in a black hoodie and his gray getaway car.

Officers stopped Diaz and Copeland nearby and found a Jimenez 9 mm handgun under the driver’s seat.

Diaz pleaded guilty in April to voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon, about a month after the gunman, Copeland, admitted to charges of first-degree murder and attempted robbery.

In handing down the sentence, which had been agreed upon by prosecutors and defense lawyers, District Judge Eric Johnson called the attack “a cold-blooded gunning down of an innocent elderly woman.”

Copeland attempted the actual robbery and fired the gun, but they both planned to rob people that night.

“This is what happens in robberies. They’re violent acts, and you need to face the consequences of what you did,” the judge said.

Last month, the judge sentenced Copeland to 20 years to life in prison.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker.