Trial to begin today for Corbin man who shot daughter’s boyfriend

"I’ll go to prison over this, but it’s worth it," William Cox allegedly told 9-1-1 dispatchers after shooting Ryan Abner, 21, on Aug. 20, 2012, with a .40 caliber Glock handgun near his driveway in Corbin.

This week, Cox will find out whether he’s right about going to prison over the killing and if so, how long he will spend behind bars.

Cox’s trial on murder and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment started Tuesday in Whitley Circuit Court.

Cox, 56, of Forest Circle Drive, faces between 20 to 50 years in prison or possibly life behind bars if he is convicted of murder.
Jury selection started Tuesday morning in the case and during the lunch break, court officials called in 10 additional jurors from the district court jury panel so that they would have enough jurors to seat a jury.

About 3 p.m., Judge Paul Winchester swore in the nine-man, four-woman jury panel.

About two minutes later as the jury panel was exiting the courtroom to go into the jury chambers, one of the female jurors fell inside the courtroom and sat on the floor for about 18 minutes as court officials waited for a Whitley County EMS ambulance to arrive about 3:20 p.m.

As the juror was getting to her feet, Whitley County EMT’s walked into the courtroom. The juror informed them that she wasn’t going to the hospital but would let them examine her leg.
EMT’s left about eight minutes later.

Then Winchester informed the jury after it returned to the courtroom that due to the late hour, he was recessing court for the day.
Opening statements are scheduled to begin about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, which is about 30 minutes earlier than court usually starts.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble said the trial is expected to last through at least Thursday and that it’s possible it might not finish until Friday.

Winchester instructed court officials to call in three additional jurors Wednesday morning, who were in the final group of perspective jurors, in the event the injured juror can’t participate in the case.

Trimble said there were several jurors from the final pool selected, who weren’t struck by either side, who could still potentially serve on the jury in this case if one of the jurors is unable to continue Wednesday.

Circuit court jury trials require 12 jurors. During long trials, court officials will usually pick one or two additional jurors to serve as alternates in the event one of the jurors can’t continue due to illness, a family emergency, etc.

In order to get 12 or 13 jurors, who will sit on a jury, the court has to qualify about 30 jurors, who agree they haven’t made up their minds about the case and can hear the case and make an impartial judgment based solely on the evidence heard in court.
Attorneys for each side then get to strike a certain number of those jurors, who they don’t want to serve on the jury panel.

If the attorneys don’t use all of their strikes, which is common, then in Whitley County the remaining jurors are chosen by a random draw by the circuit clerk or one of his deputies.

Cox’s trial will be different from some in that there is no dispute that he is the person, who shot Abner.

After he shot Abner, Cox told 9-1-1 dispatchers that Abner had hit his daughter with whom Abner had a child.

"He’d been hitting her, beating her up," Cox is heard telling dispatchers in the 9-1-1 call. "I just got tired of it."

Corbin police found Abner dead inside his Chevy Equinox SUV. The wanton endangerment charges stem from two other people being in the SUV when Cox allegedly opened fire. They were Brittany Cox, who is William Cox’s daughter and was Abner’s girlfriend, and her infant child.

According to witness statements, Corbin Police Sgt. Rusty Hedrick said Cox had been standing in a neighbor’s driveway when Abner and Cox’s daughter along with their child came by in the SUV.

A verbal argument ensued between Cox and Abner and as Abner drove off, Cox fired one round from a Glock .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun into the right rear of the SUV.

Abner got out of the vehicle and began cursing Cox. When Cox began moving toward the vehicle, Abner jumped back in and began to leave.

"Cox ran up to the vehicle and fired multiple rounds through the driver side window, striking Abner in the head," Hedrick said. Cox then went to a neighbor’s house and called 9-1-1 to report the shooting.

"No, he’s dead," Cox is heard telling dispatchers when asked about Abner’s condition. "I shot him good and made sure he’s dead."