PARCHMAN, Miss. – A man who killed his estranged wife and terrorized their family became the first person executed in Mississippi in nine years.
David Neal Cox, 50, was put to death by lethal injection at 6:12 p.m. EST on Wednesday at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, WAPT reported.
Cox was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of his wife, Kim Kirk Cox, in May 2010, the television station reported. According to court records, Cox shot his wife and let her bleed to death over several hours while he sexually assaulted his 12-year-old stepdaughter.
Cox, of Pontotoc County, pleaded guilty, and a Union County jury in 2012 sentenced him to die, WTVA reported.
“I knew that the only way that he was not going to get out and kill anybody else would be death row,” Benny Kirk, Kim Cox’s father, told the Clarion-Ledger on Tuesday. “It’s time for it to be over with.”
The stepdaughter, now 23, accompanied other family members to witness the execution, according to WAPT.
The Coxes separated in 2009 after Kim Cox’s daughter, who was a minor, said David Cox sexually assaulted her, according to court documents. Kim Cox reported the incident to the police, the Clarion-Ledger reported.
David Cox was released from the Pontotoc County Jail on bond in April 2010, according to court records.
Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said Cox appeared calm and expressed some remorse in the days prior to his execution, the television station reported. His last meal was fried catfish, french fries, cornbread and banana pudding, corrections officials said.
