The woman's husband told the Rotorua Daily Post at the time that a man had entered the store, where she was working alone, and asked for "money and rollies" before jumping the counter and swinging an extendable baton at her.
The next day, police used a helicopter, road spikes and multiple vehicles in pursuit of Dixon, who had driven a stolen car from Rotorua to Whakatane via Paengaroa, back through Edgecumbe before crashing near Lake Rotoma.
Dixon appeared in a story in the Rotorua Daily Post in October 2012, talking about how he had turned his life of crime around and wanted to help police by working with young people.
In the article he said he had been paranoid schizophrenic but had "conquered that" and was no longer on medication.
Judge Phillip Cooper remanded Dixon in custody. He will return to the Henry Bennett Centre, a mental health facility in Hamilton where he had been prior to yesterday's appearance. He will be sentenced on July 14.
