CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Mecklenburg County jury has found Eric Cox guilty of second-degree murder and DWI in the 2011 crash that killed a mother and injured her 4-year-old son.
The jury returned the verdict just before noon Tuesday after beginning deliberations Monday. Cox, a former Marine, was also found guilty of failure to comply with license restrictions and felony serious injury by motor vehicle. He was sentenced to 17-22 years in prison.
The jurors had to decide whether to convict Cox of second-degree murder or manslaughter, or acquit him.
Read our past coverage:
Cox was accused in the November 2011 death of H'luan Sin and the life-threatening injury of her 4-year-old son, Khai Cooke.
The crash happened at the intersection of East Sugar Creek Road and The Plaza. Police said Cox ran the red light and hit Sin in the intersection at nearly 60 mph.
She was killed instantly. Her son suffered severe brain trauma and massive damage to his body. Cox walked away without a scratch.
Police said at the time his blood alcohol level was .17, which is more than twice the legal limit. Also, Cox had a previous DWI conviction in 2009. When the state gave his driver's license back, it was with a special condition that his blood alcohol level could not be above .04. It was four times that amount on the night of the crash, according to police.
It was a night when Cox had been bar-hopping, and Sin was coming home from work and had just picked up her son from his father's home.
"He couldn't have cared less about her. He couldn't have cared less about anyone but himself," said Assistant District Attorney Max Diaz in closing arguments Monday morning.
Diaz told the jury that the second-degree murder charge against Cox was just because he showed a reckless disregard for human life.
"This case is the very definition of malice," Diaz said. "This was murder."
However, after a two-week trial, defense lawyer Bill Powers said the state's case was a "rush to judgment." He said the police investigation was half-hearted, and accused detectives of being led by their emotions, and not digging deep enough to get the truth.
"They were unscientific, unspecific, uninterested, except for one thing, and that was to make sure they got a conviction," Powers said.
Defense lawyers also raised questions about the eyewitness who said the victim had the green light and not Cox. Powers argued that at least one eyewitness was too far away to have seen anything.
Diaz pointed out that all three eyewitnesses agreed the victim had the green light.
Jurors also heard testimony earlier in the trial that Cox was unconcerned with the victim, and seemed more worried about wrecking his Chevy Tahoe than the fact that someone was killed.
WSOC
