Suspected killer nabbed
Texas fugitive captured on I-40

Dina Terrell Jackson is arrested by Gallup, McKinley County and New Mexico State Police officers on Interstate 40 on Friday morning. Jackson, who was traveling on a Greyhound bus heading west, was wanted by federal authorities for one count of fugitive from justice charges. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — A woman wanted for murder in Fort Worth, Texas, was captured in Gallup Friday.

Dina Gordon-Jackson, 34, allegedly fatally stabbed her husband, Michael Jackson, 37, two days ago, according to the criminal complaint filed by Fort Worth Police detective M.J. Carroll.

Police caught up with Gordon-Jackson near exit 26 on Interstate Highway 40 in New Mexico after stopping the Greyhound bus on which she was traveling. Officers with virtually every law-enforcement agency in McKinley County arrived armed and en masse. Amidst a bus full of onlookers, Gordon-Jackson surrendered without incident and was booked at Gallup McKinley Adult Detention Center as a fugitive from justice.

Gordon-Jackson said during an interview in jail Friday that U.S. Marshals will take her back to Fort Worth Saturday.

But Deputy Director of the U.S. Marshals Service in Albuquerque, Drew Koschny, said the service has no knowledge of Gordon-Jackson or her murder charge, and that she is not listed as a fugitive from justice.

Contradicting Koschny’s claim are the multiple attempt-to-locate requests broadcast to all on-duty officers with McKinley County Sheriff’s Department, Gallup Police Department and District 6 state police between about 10 a.m. and 11:52 a.m., the time Gordon-Jackson was arrested. The requests reportedly originated with the U.S. Marshals Service, and said marshals were triangulating her position using her cell phone.

About the murder charge, Gordon-Jackson said she killed her husband in self defense following a violent argument over car payments. She said that when she stabbed him, she didn’t realize the severity of his wounds because he left their house so quickly.

Jackson was found down the street from the couple’s home, having crashed his red Chevy Tahoe into a neighbor’s pickup, which crashed through a house, according to the complaint. He was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital where physicians pronounced him dead.

Gordon-Jackson said she left their house a few minutes after Jackson, that she must have passed his crashed Tahoe and not realized it.

Gordon-Jackson detailed a six-year relationship with Jackson that was rife with abuse. She said that, after meeting in Chicago, the couple moved to Las Vegas. It was there that Jackson spent between 30 and 60 days in jail after crushing Gordon-Jackson’s leg during one of dozens of violent outbursts, according to Gordon-Jackson.

Having grown accustomed to Jackson’s sudden violence and subsequent departure — for two or three days at a time — and eventually followed by his romantic homecoming, Gordon-Jackson said she didn’t think it abnormal that he left after their fight.

She said that when he didn’t call her Thursday she grew worried. She filed a missing person report with Fort Worth Police at about 2:45 p.m. Thursday, according to the complaint.

“She failed to inform the police department about the blood in her house or even ask the police to respond to her house,” the complaint reads.

After calling a friend in Las Vegas and arranging a visit, Gordon-Jackson boarded the Greyhound Bus about 7 p.m. Thursday.

Gordon-Jackson said she called the Tarrant County medical examiner from the bus; and after a long pause, the medical examiner told her Jackson was dead. She said she called Detective Carroll upon receiving the news, that Carroll told her she would be charged with murder.

She said she told Carroll to have her picked up, that she was on a bus to Las Vegas.

Reporter Phil Stake can be reached at philip.stake@gmail.com, or by calling (505) 863-6811 x223.