The accused in the 2012 murder of Plaisance businessman Deryck “Backatoo” Cox was discharged last Friday after almost seven years in jail, which his lawyer says will form the grounds of a $100 million lawsuit for wrongful imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
Attorney Dexter Todd told a press conference yesterday that the suit would be filed on behalf of Floyd Cox, who was charged with the murder. Floyd is the nephew of the businessman, who was shot dead on December 22nd, 2012.
Todd noted that Cox was on remand for almost seven years for a crime he did not commit. He said that on October 21st, 2013 Magistrate Alex Moore, at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, committed Cox to stand trial at the High Court for the crime upon the conclusion of a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) into the charge.
However, he noted that subsequent to the committal, the case jacket and depositions were not sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) until February 18th, 2016. In August, 2016, he added, the DPP wrote Magistrate Moore and instructed that the PI be reopened. However, by that time the Magistrate was transferred to the Berbice Magisterial District and was therefore unable to act on the letter until a year later.
On December 27th, 2018, Cox, now represented by Todd, faced the reopening of the preliminary inquiry. Todd noted that he was given the opportunity to revisit the evidence Cox was originally committed on and he noted that there was evidence in Cox’s favour that challenged the caution statement, while the main witness had never come to court.
The man was discharged last Friday after Magistrate Moore looked at fresh evidence in the matter and finally heard from the main witness, who testified to not seeing Cox. The caution statement was also disallowed.
Todd described Cox’s tenure in prison as very unfortunate one, while noting that the man would have maintained his innocence from the beginning but no one believed him.
He added that Cox has practically lost everything with the time he would have spent behind bars.
Cox, in addressing the press, stated that being on remand was really hard for him and that he had to hold himself up, despite feeling like giving up.
The now 32-year-old man noted that being out of prison has left him trying to pick of the pieces of his life and making the best of it despite the stigma that’s attached to him.
