Before the sentence, her family and a friend talked about a wonderful young woman and even played a video of the Pennsauken High School junior whose life was taken by Dixon.
"I hope he suffers. I hope he suffers every day. And I hope Sherita is in his mind every day for the rest of his life just like she's going to be in ours," said Sherita's mother, Wilma Williams.
"Sherita died a horrible death that was not fair for the person she was: loving, kind, happy, concerned for others," said Sherita's aunt, Celestine Williams.
Dixon pleaded guilty in March to aggravated manslaughter and attempted aggravated sexual assault. He strangled Williams because she would not have sex with him. Her body was left under a bridge on the Camden-Pennsauken border.
"You let your selfishness in wanting her rob so many, many people of the beauty, the joy, the love, laughter," said Williams's friend Kathy Norton.
Several years after Sherita Williams's death, investigators got a break when Dixon was arrested on a drug charge and his DNA put into a national database. Eventually it was found to match DNA found on Williams's jeans.
"This is the kind of case that sticks with even hardened homicide investigators. They always felt they knew who did it, but they needed evidence," said Camden County prosecutor Warren Faulk.
"I am satisfied that he's off the street so that won't be able to do this to any other person's child,"said Sherita's father, Harry Williams.
Warren Dixon's attorney apologized, but Dixon said nothing as he left court. He'll serve at least 17 years before parole eligibility. Sherita Williams's father says that's not long enough.
