Murder suspect in court today

MINDEN - A 23-year-old Gardnerville man with a long criminal history will be arraigned today on a first-degree murder charge in the 2008 slaying of Benjamin Oxley, shot as he slept in his home.

James Matlean was charged Wednesday with murder in the first degree with a deadly weapon.

If convicted, Matlean faces life in prison without parole. The district attorney has the option of requesting the death

penalty.

District Attorney Mark Jackson said Matlean was the only suspect. Jackson said Oxley's ex-wife Dawn, who was Matlean's roommate, was considered a

witness.

"The person we believe to be responsible is in custody," Jackson said Thursday. "The complaint charges him and him alone."

Deputies were called to Benjamin Oxley's home on Wildhorse Lane in the Johnson Lane area at 3:30 a.m. Feb. 21, 2008, and found him dead of a shotgun wound to the head. His wife and then 6-year-old daughter were at the residence as well as his wife's teenage brother.

Matlean was served Wednesday with an arrest warrant in Douglas County Jail where he was wrapping up an eight-month sentence for a probation violation in an unrelated offense.

He is being held without bail on the murder charge.

According to the report, witnesses told investigators that Matlean and Dawn Oxley, 37, drank frequently and talked about custody issues involving her ex-husband.

The night before Oxley was murdered, one witness told investigators Dawn Oxley and Matlean were drinking whiskey.

"She wanted her daughter. She just wanted Ben dead," the witness said. "James (Matlean) said, 'You know what? I'll go kill him for you. Just give me the word and I'll go kill him right now as long as it means getting your daughter. I'll take a shotgun to his face and kill him.' Dawn just kept saying no like a broken record."

Dawn Oxley told The Record-Courier in an interview the day of her ex-husband's death she hadn't seen him for weeks.

She said their only contact had been to arrange visitation with their daughter.

"I try to avoid him," she said. "He's my ex-husband and we didn't have a wonderful life together."

Matlean has had several contacts with law enforcement including three felony convictions by age 19.

He currently is in Douglas County Jail nearing the end of an eight-month sentence for stealing four cartons of cigarettes from a Gardnerville convenience story in April 2009.

According to the investigators' reports, Dawn Oxley told deputies that Matlean told her he whispered, "This is for lying about Dawn," in the victim's ear before Oxley was shot.

She also said he woke her up the morning of the murder and said, "It's done."