UPDATE: Whitley men accused of 2008 murder take stand in own defense Wednesday

Closing arguments are slated for 10 a.m. Thursday in the trial of Dwayne Cox and George Anthony Damron, who are both charged with murder in connection with the June 6, 2008, death of local resident Charles Frazier.

The 11-woman, two-man jury heard the last bits of testimony late Wednesday afternoon and both men took the stand in their own defense.

On March 28, 2008, Damron and Cox were involved in an altercation with Charles Frazier and his son, Joe Frazier.
Damron allegedly used a hunting knife that he said he kept in the vehicle for "mechanical use" to stab Frazier in the chest and cut his throat.

Frazier died weeks later at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

Dr. John Hunsaker, a state medical examiner who autopsied Frazier’s body the day after he died, ruled the cause of death as multiple organ failure due to multiple sharp force injuries to the neck, truck and extremities.

He testified that that slashed throat isn’t what ultimately killed Frazer and that the slash missed the trachea or windpipe.
Rather, it was "highly likely" that one of three wounds to the chest area was responsible causing injury to the colon or bowel area.

Frazier also suffered a wound to the back of one hand.

Shannon Phelps, a Kentucky State Police Crime Lab forensic scientist, testified that Frazier’s blood was found on a hunting knife she examined and that it also contained DNA from two other people, but that she didn’t know whom.

Cox said that he had been dropped off hours before the incident to see Candace Canada, who was his girlfriend, and their infant daughter. She lived next door to Angie Canada.

Damron testified that he went by Canada’s home in the Ky. 204 area that evening and loaned her his phone. Then came back two other times that evening to retrieve it, but didn’t because she still needed to use it.

He denied taking Canada to Krystal’s Restaurant and with him to a car wash so he could clean his vehicle, which Canada testified that he did Tuesday afternoon.

He also denied using any drugs that evening while at her trailer besides taken a prescription painkiller that he had with him.
Defense attorney David Hoskins played a voice mail message left on Damron’s phone at 11:54 p.m. on March 27, 2008. It was the phone that Angela Canada had used to call him shortly before that complaining about his parenting skills.

In the message, Frazier can be heard yelling, cursing and threatening that he is going to give Damron a "&*(*& whippin bill."
Damron denied making the comment.

The comment was apparently in reference to a statement that Damron allegedly made while Angie Canada was on the phone with him earlier that evening about diapers being bought for Canada and Frazier’s child.
Frazier testified under cross-examination Tuesday afternoon that he never called the number back and left a voice mail message.

Joe Frazier claims that she called him repeatedly, including calling his father’s residence, and he drove by to "scare her."
By all accounts, Charles Frazier drove Joe Frazier by Canada’s residence about three times with at least yelling and cussing exchanges occurring between Joe Frazier and Angie Canada.

Canada and another witness, who was at her residence along with Cox and Damron doing drugs according to at least one account, testified that the vehicle stopped on the third pass with Joe Frazier hanging out the window yelling and threatening to kill everyone there and burn down the place with people "chained" inside.

Angie Canada testified that she told Joe Frazier to go ahead and kill her right there because she was tired of being afraid of him.

Joe Frazier denies making threats to kill people or burn the trailer down.

Damron and Cox both testified that they left the residence around midnight about 15 minutes after Frazier drove by the third time so Damron could drive Cox to Wal-Mart to pickup diapers for his infant daughter.

Both testified that Charles Frazier rammed the vehicle a short time after they pulled onto Highway 895.

"I had no idea who had rear-ended me … I really didn’t know what was going on," Damron testified.

Joe Frazier contends that the Damron vehicle passed his father’s SUV then cut them off stopping abruptly in the road.
By all accounts, Joe Frazier hit Cox with an aluminum rod almost immediately as he exited the vehicle that left Cox momentarily stunned.

Both Cox and Damron said that all they knew was that someone had some type of pipe.

Damron said that when he exited the vehicle he started getting hit by pipes from both sides, and that he grabbed a hunting knife that he kept in his driver’s side door.

"I just went to slashing. I did not know what was going on," he testified.

Damron said that Charles Frazier had a pipe in addition to Joe Frazier.

Damron said that he ended up in the grass with someone beating him.

By that time, Cox had regained his senses and he and Joe Frazier started to fistfight and ended up on the ground by all three accounts.

Damron said he heard someone say, "Son, I’m bleeding," and later learned that it was Charles Frazier.
Joe Frazier said that his father was on blood thinners and asked to help him so he didn’t bleed to death, according to Cox and Damron’s account.

After Joe Frazier drove his father off to get help, Cox and Damron testified that they had to search for Damron’s glasses, and then went back to Canada’s residence.

At Canada’s Damron testified that he washed up and handed his hunting knife as well as a pocketknife to someone. Cox testified that he also gave his pocketknife to someone. Police later recovered the knives, which had been hidden.

"I didn’t know it was going to be hidden," Cox testified. "If I knew that she was going to hide it, I would have kept it in my pocket. I was in a panic state of mind."

Damron said that he went home to his family, and was awoken about 3 a.m. by police investigating a vehicle involved in an altercation.

He said that police took pictures and he gave them a statement.

Cox said he was awoken by police about 5 a.m. and was taken down to the sheriff’s department where he gave police a statement as well.

Both men denied a written statement that Angie Canada gave to Whitley County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Foley where she claimed that she begged them not to chase after the Frazier vehicle.

She testified Tuesday that she didn’t remember giving that statement to police.

Joe Frazier testified Tuesday that after his father called out that he had been stabbed, Damron handed a knife to Cox and told Cox to kill him as well.

He said Cox threatened to kill him later, and then the two of them stomped him until he lost consciousness. When he woke up, he saw his father with a slashed throat.

Cox denied having a knife with him at the time of the altercation or using one during the altercation.

Joe Frazier called 911 at 1:08 a.m. in an effort to get an ambulance for his father, Whitley County 911 Director Angie Matney testified.

Judge Paul Braden overruled two routine motions for a directed verdict of not guilty from Damron’s lawyer, David Hoskins.
After the close of testimony, Braden postponed ruling on a motion for a directed verdict of not guilty from Cox’s lawyer, public defender Ron Findell.