Murderer free from jail after three years: Paul Efaw was convicted of fatally stabbing foster daughter, Connre Dixon, in '05

HEATHER CHAPIN-FOWLER

hfowler@MorningJournal.com

NORWALK — The Ridgefield Township man who was convicted of fatally stabbing his 11-year-old foster daughter four years ago will be released Wednesday from prison, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's Web site.

"We have no control of it," said Huron County Prosecutor Russ Leffler, who handled the criminal conviction of Paul Efaw in 2005.

Retired Common Pleas Judge Earl McGimpsey sentenced Efaw to three years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.

"It still sticks in my craw," said Leffler, who unsuccessfully fought for more prison time.

Efaw will be released just days before the fourth anniversary of Connre Dixon's Oct. 18 death. He will be on supervised probation by the local probation department, said Leffler.

Dixon was placed in the Efaw family's care by the Department of Job and Family Services, which was later sued by her estate.

In civil proceedings that wrapped up earlier this year, Dixon's siblings and grandfather received less than $300,000 despite a jury award of $600,000. The jury award was later overturned by Visiting Judge Judith Cross.

During the criminal trial, Efaw testified that Connre was carrying a knife behind her back after she and his children came home from school around 3:30 p.m.

Efaw and Connre struggled for the knife in a barn on the family's property and Efaw maintained that he pushed the girl during the struggle and that he believed Connre's fatal wound resulted from her fall onto the knife following the struggle.

Connre's father, Ronald Dixon, left the area at some point after the criminal proceedings and her mother, Zandra Dixon, died a few years ago.