Eric Cox
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A jury has found a former Marine guilty in a deadly 2011 drunk driving case that killed a young mother.
Prosecutors say Eric Cox was drunk when he blew through a red light on E. Sugar Creek Road in November 2011 and killed 26-year-old H’Luon Siu and injuring her 4-year-old boy.
Police say Cox was not hurt in the crash.
Eric Cox’s defense team opted not to put on evidence and gained two closing arguments. They gave the last argument before the jury deliberated.
In their first closing, they raised doubts about the evidence presented. They pointed out problems with the report for his blood alcohol content and whether witnesses really saw Cox run a red light.
Prosecutors replayed a jailhouse phone call where Cox acknowledges his arrest in 2011 after the crash would be his second DWI and the driver of the other car died.
“This is what this case is all about. This is a why we’re here. The state is not asking for your sympathy, not at all,” said Assistant District Attorney Max Diaz holding up photos of the victims, “What the state is asking for is justice.”
Cox’s lawyer, Bill Powers, said the police rushed to judgment and accused Cox because someone needed to be held accountable for a woman’s death and seriously injuring a boy. Defense asked jurors to look at the cold hard facts and not to rush to judgment.
“Without a rush to judgment, without a vengeance is mine, without the same mistake they did,” said Powers pointing to the lead detective.
According to his Facebook page at the time, Cox owned a real estate business, served in the Marines and published his Iraq war journals.
