State of Mississippi Executes David Cox — Death Row Inmate Who Promised to Murder His Wife from Jail
Happening in just a matter of hours today, a North Mississippi man is set to die by lethal injection for killing his wife. This is the first execution in our state in 9 years. Execution is set to happen. WTBA’s Tanya Carter and our videographer Alvin Ivy are on their way to Parchman today.
That execution is set for 6:00 tonight. We will bring you live coverage all throughout the day. I’m going to kill her when I get out. David Cox said those words over and over during the nine months he spent in jail. He told his cellmates. He told anyone who would listen. He wasn’t joking. He wasn’t venting. He was making a promise.
May 15th, 2010, Sherman, Mississippi. 3:23 a.m. A SWAT team broke down the door of a small house and found David Cox standing over his wife’s body. Kim Cox had been shot in the abdomen. She had been bleeding out for over 8 hours while her husband watched her die. Cox didn’t try to run. He didn’t resist arrest.
He just smiled and said, “I told everyone I was going to do it.” But here’s what makes this case absolutely chilling. The system knew Cox was dangerous. Police knew he had threatened to kill his wife. A judge still granted him bail. And the moment he walked out of that jail, he bought a gun and went hunting.
Nine months of threats, one day of freedom, eight hours of terror, and one woman who died slowly while her husband refused to let anyone save her. Before we continue, please like this video and subscribe to True Crime Matters because what you’re about to hear will make you question how someone this dangerous was ever allowed to walk free.
This is the story of David Neil Cox, the man who announced his murder plan to an entire jail and then carried it out exactly as promised. David Neil Cox was born on November 30th, 1970. For most of his adult life, he worked as a truck driver in Mississippi. To the outside world, he seemed normal, just another guy trying to make a living.
He married a woman named Kim. Together, they had two sons. Kim also had a daughter from a previous relationship. On paper, they looked like a regular American family, but behind closed doors, David Cox was a monster. For years, Cox was abusive toward his wife and children. The abuse was physical, emotional, and sexual. His stepdaughter suffered in silence, terrified of what Cox would do if she spoke up.
Then in August 2009, she couldn’t take it anymore. She went to the police and reported Cox. The accusations were horrifying. Cox had been sexually abusing his stepdaughter for years. When police investigated, they found even more evidence of his crimes. On top of the abuse charges, police discovered Cox was involved in drugs.
He was arrested and charged with multiple felonies. Statutory rape, sexual battery, child abuse, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug precursors. Cox was thrown in jail to await trial. His bail was set high because of the severity of the charges. Everyone assumed he would stay locked up for months, maybe years.
Kim Cox finally felt safe. With her husband in jail, she and her children could breathe again. They moved in with Kim’s sister in Sherman, Mississippi, a small town where they hoped to rebuild their lives away from Cox’s violence. But Cox wasn’t done with them. Not even close. Inside the jail, David Cox became obsessed with revenge. He blamed Kim for everything.
In his twisted mind, she was the reason he was locked up. She had turned their daughter against him. She had called the police. She had destroyed his life. Cox started talking to his cellmates. At first, they thought he was just blowing off steam. Plenty of inmates talk tough about what they’ll do when they get out.
But Cox was different. He was specific. I’m going to kill her when I get out, Cox said repeatedly. She did this to me. She’s going to pay. His cellmates heard these threats so often they became routine. Cox wasn’t venting anymore. He was planning. For 9 months, Cox sat in that jail cell, his rage building every single day.
He thought about Kim constantly. He imagined what he would do to her. He made a mental list of how he would make her suffer. Then in April 2010, something unthinkable happened. Cox posted bail. Despite the serious charges against him, despite the threats he had been making for months, despite the danger he posed to his wife and children, a judge granted him bail.
David Cox walked out of jail a free man. Kim found out her husband was free and panicked. She knew he would come for her. The threats he had made in jail weren’t empty words. Cox always kept his promises. Kim went into hiding. She stayed with her sister. She kept the children close. She prayed he wouldn’t find them.
But Cox had 9 months to plan, and he knew exactly where she was. May 14th, 2010. 1 month after posting bail, David Cox walked into a gun store and purchased a 40 caliber handgun. He also bought extra ammunition, lots of it. The gun store clerk ran the required background check. Cox had been charged with serious crimes, but he hadn’t been convicted yet.
Technically, he was still allowed to buy a gun. Cox left the store with the weapon, and headed straight for his van. He loaded the gun, checked the ammunition, and started driving toward Sherman, Mississippi. He knew exactly where Kim’s sister lived. He had been planning this moment for 9 months. Now, he was finally going to keep his promise.
As Cox drove through the quiet Mississippi countryside, Kim was at her sister’s house with her children. It was a normal evening. The kids were playing. Kim was cooking dinner. Nobody suspected what was about to happen. Then David Cox pulled up outside. Cox didn’t knock. He didn’t call out. He just kicked in the front door.
Kim’s sister screamed when she saw him. Cox raised the gun and fired a shot into the ceiling. The sound was deafening. The children started crying. Cox pointed the gun at everyone in the room. his two sons, his step-daughter, his wife, and his sister-in-law all froze in terror. “Nobody move,” Cox said calmly. “If anyone tries to leave, I’ll kill everyone.
” Kim’s sister tried to reason with him. She begged him to put the gun down. She told him he didn’t have to do this. Cox fired another shot, this time into the wall. The message was clear. He wasn’t here to talk. In the chaos, Kim’s sister and one of Cox’s sons managed to escape through a back door. They ran to a neighbor’s house and called 911, but Cox still had his wife, his stepdaughter, and his other son trapped inside. The hostage situation had begun.
Police surrounded the house within minutes. Negotiators tried to establish contact with Cox. They called the house phone. They used megaphones. They begged him to let the hostages go. Cox refused. I’m not leaving until Kim is dead. He told the negotiators. That’s the only way this ends. Inside the house, Kim was terrified.
She knew her husband had been planning this for months. She knew he wasn’t going to let her leave alive. Cox paced around the room. The gun always pointed at someone. He ranted about how Kim had ruined his life. He blamed her for his arrest. He said she deserved what was coming.
Then sometime during those first few hours, Cox shot Kim in the abdomen. The bullet tore through her stomach. Blood poured from the wound. Kim collapsed on the floor, clutching her abdomen, begging for help. Cox just stood there and watched. Outside, police heard the gunshot. Negotiators frantically tried to reach Cox. They offered him anything he wanted.
They begged him to let Kim get medical treatment. Cox’s response was chilling. I want to watch her die slowly. For the next several hours, Kim bled out on the floor while her husband watched. She was conscious for most of it. She could feel her life draining away. She begged Cox to let her go to a hospital. He refused.
Kim’s family members arrived at the scene. They pleaded with police to storm the house. They begged negotiators to do something. Their daughter, their sister, was dying inside, and no one could save her. But police couldn’t risk it. As long as Cox had hostages and a gun, any rescue attempt could end in more bloodshed.
So they waited, and Kim kept bleeding. At 3:23 a.m. on May 15th, more than 8 hours after the standoff began, the SWAT team made their move. They had tried everything else. Cox wasn’t negotiating. He wasn’t releasing hostages. He wasn’t showing any signs of backing down. They had no choice but to go in.
The SWAT team breached the front door with explosive charges. Officers flooded into the house, weapons raised, shouting commands. Cox didn’t resist. He dropped his gun and put his hands up. He had gotten what he wanted. Kim was dead or dying. His mission was complete. Paramedics rushed inside and found Kim on the floor.
She had been bleeding for over 8 hours. She had lost massive amounts of blood. They tried to stabilize her, but it was too late. Kim Cox died at the scene. The children were physically unharmed, but traumatized beyond measure. They had watched their mother die slowly over the course of an entire night. They had seen their father’s cold indifference to her suffering.
David Cox was arrested on the spot. As officers handcuffed him, he smiled. I told everyone I was going to do it, he said. After his arrest, Cox was charged with eight counts: capital murder, two counts of kidnapping, burglary, firing a weapon into a dwelling, and three counts of sexual battery. On September 17th, 2012, Cox’s trial began.
Prosecutors had overwhelming evidence, witnesses, forensics, Cox’s own statements to police. The case was airtight. Cox didn’t even try to fight it. He pleaded guilty to all eight charges. The prosecution announced they would seek the death penalty for the capital murder charge. Under Mississippi law, Cox faced either death by lethal injection or life in prison without parole.
The trial lasted 5 days. The jury heard testimony from Kim’s family, from police officers, from the children who survived the hostage situation. Kim’s father, Benny Kirk, took the stand and described his daughter as a caring mother who was generous toward others. He called Cox evil. Cox’s stepdaughter, now older, testified about the years of abuse she had endured.
She described the horror of watching her mother bleed to death while Cox refused to help. On September 22nd, 2012, the jury returned with their sentencing recommendation. It was unanimous death penalty. For the remaining seven charges, Cox received a total of 185 years in prison. But it didn’t matter. He would be executed long before those sentences ran out.
Cox was sent to death row at Mississippi State Penitentiary. He was 41 years old. For years after his conviction, Cox sat on death row filing appeals like most condemned inmates. But something changed in 2018. Cox wrote a letter to the judge, the district attorney, and his lawyer. In it, he admitted to killing Kim and said he would do it again if given the chance.
He also did something almost no death row inmate does. He asked to stop all appeals and be executed as soon as possible. Cox’s lawyers were shocked. Waving your appeals is essentially asking to die. Very few inmates ever make this choice. But Cox wasn’t done shocking people. He had another confession to make. In October 2021, one month before his scheduled execution, Cox wrote another letter.
This one was addressed to law enforcement. In it, Cox confessed to a second murder. His sister-in-law, Felicia Cox, who had disappeared in July 2007. Felicia was the wife of Cox’s brother. She was 40 years old when she vanished. The last person to see her alive was Kim Cox. Felicia had been visiting Kim in Ponttoalk County, Mississippi, and then she just disappeared.
For 14 years, police had suspected David Cox was involved. He had been a person of interest in Felicia’s disappearance, but they never had enough evidence to charge him. Now, with nothing left to lose, Cox admitted he had killed her. He even drew a map showing where he buried her body. Police immediately began searching the location Cox indicated.
Experts in archaeology and anthropology from Mississippi State University helped with the search. On December 13th, 2021, nearly a month after Cox’s execution, they found human remains. DNA testing confirmed it on December 24th, 2021. The body was Felicia Cox. Her daughter, Amber Miss Kelly, who was 18 years old when her mother disappeared, finally had closure.
After 14 years of wondering, she knew what happened. David Cox had murdered his sister-in-law and kept the secret for over a decade. He only confessed when he knew he would be dead before anyone could add another charge. Before Cox could be executed, the state had to prove he was mentally competent to make the decision to wave his appeals.
In February 2021, Union County Circuit Judge Kent Smith held a competency hearing. Cox testified. His family testified. Mental health experts examined him and gave their opinions. The question wasn’t whether Cox was mentally ill. The question was whether he understood what he was asking for and whether he was capable of making that decision.
On April 5th, 2021, Judge Smith issued his ruling. Cox was mentally competent. He understood that waving his appeals meant he would be executed. He was making this choice of his own free will. The ruling paved the way for the state to schedule an execution date. On October 22nd, 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Court issued an official death warrant.
David Neil Cox would be executed on November 17th, 2021. It would be Mississippi’s first execution in 9 years. The state had paused executions because of difficulties obtaining the drugs needed for lethal injection, but those issues had been resolved. Cox would be the first. Cox’s stepdaughter, Lindseay Kirk, now 23 years old, told reporters she wanted to attend the execution.
She wanted Cox to face the consequences of his crimes. She wanted to watch him die the way he had forced her to watch her mother die. Kim’s father, Benny Kirk, told the press he had never realized how abusive Cox was until it was too late. He said his family would never be whole again.
On November 16th, 2021, the day before the execution, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced he would not grant clemency. David Cox would die as scheduled. November 17th, 2021, Mississippi State Penitentiary. David Cox spent his final day in a holding cell near the execution chamber. He was two weeks away from his 51st birthday. He had spent 9 years on death row.
For his last meal, Cox ordered banana pudding, French fries, fried catfish, and cornmeal, southern comfort food. But Cox did something unusual. He shared his meal with Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Kaine. Two other corrections officials and three chaplain. Most death row inmates eat their last meal alone.
Cox invited people to eat with him. Some saw it as a sign of remorse. Others thought it was just another manipulation. As the execution time approached, Cox was moved to the death chamber. He was strapped to a gurnie. IV lines were inserted into his arms. Through the glass window, witnesses gathered.
Lindsay Kirk, Cox’s stepdaughter, was there. So were other members of Kim’s family. They had waited 11 years for this moment. The warden asked Cox if he had any last words. Cox took a deep breath and spoke. I want my children to know that I love them very much and that I was a good man at one time. A good man at one time.
The words hung in the air like poison. Cox continued, “Don’t ever read anything but the King James Bible.” Then he thanked the corrections commissioner for being kind to him over the years. He said nothing about Kim. Nothing about the 8 hours of torture he put her through, nothing about Felicia, nothing about the lives he destroyed. At 6:00 p.m.
, the lethal injection began. A single dose of pentobarbatlowed through the IV lines into Cox’s veins. His chest rose and fell a few times. His breathing slowed, then it stopped. At 6:12 p.m., David Neil Cox was pronounced dead. He was the first person executed in Mississippi in 9 years. He was the 18th person in the state to die by lethal injection since 2002.
For Kim’s family, Cox’s execution brought a complicated sense of closure. Justice had been served, but it couldn’t bring Kim back. It couldn’t erase the trauma her children experienced. It couldn’t undo 11 years of grief. Lindsay Kirk, who witnessed her mother’s murder at 12 years old and watched her killer die at 23, told reporters she felt relief.
“He can’t hurt anyone anymore,” she said. But the story didn’t end with Cox’s death. A month later, police found Felicia Cox’s remains. DNA confirmed her identity on Christmas Eve 2021. Her family finally had answers after 14 years. Cox’s confession to Felicia’s murder raised uncomfortable questions. How many other crimes had he committed? How many other secrets had he taken to the grave? Police reviewed Cox’s history.
They looked at unsolved cases in areas where he had traveled as a truck driver, but if Cox had other victims, he never confessed to them. The case also raised questions about the bail system. Cox had spent 9 months in jail threatening to kill his wife. His cellmates heard him. Guards knew about it, yet a judge still granted him bail. How does someone that dangerous get released? How does the system fail so completely? Kim Cox is still dead because of that failure.
If Cox had stayed in jail where he belonged, she would still be alive today. David Cox’s case sparked debates about the death penalty that continue today. Supporters of capital punishment point to Cox as proof that some people are beyond redemption. He murdered his wife in the crulest way possible. He confessed to murdering his sister-in-law.
He said he would kill Kim again if given the chance. If anyone deserved the death penalty, they argue it was David Cox. But opponents point out that Cox wanted to die. He waved his appeals. He asked to be executed. In a way, the state gave him exactly what he wanted. Is that really justice, or is it just assisted suicide with extra steps? Some argue that forcing Cox to spend the rest of his life in prison would have been a harsher punishment.
Death was an escape from the consequences of his actions. Others say it doesn’t matter what Cox wanted. What matters is that he can never hurt anyone again. Dead criminals don’t reaffend. The debate will never have a clear answer, but one thing is certain. Kim Cox deserved better. She deserved a system that would protect her from a man who publicly announced his plans to kill her.
She deserved to see her daughter grow up. She deserved to watch her sons become men. She deserved to grow old and hold her grandchildren. Instead, she bled to death on a floor while her husband watched and smiled. David Neil Cox lived 50 years. He spent the last nine of them on death row. He murdered at least two people, possibly more. He terrorized his family for years.
He turned his wife’s final hours into a nightmare. He robbed his children of their mother and their childhood. In his last words, Cox claimed he was a good man at one time. But the people who knew him best would disagree. Kim’s family would disagree. his stepdaughter would disagree. A good man doesn’t spend nine months threatening murder.
A good man doesn’t shoot his wife and watch her bleed out for eight hours. A good man doesn’t abuse children. A good man doesn’t kill his sister-in-law and hide her body for 14 years. David Cox wasn’t a good man. He was a monster who occasionally wore a human mask. On November 17th, 2021, the state of Mississippi removed that monster from the world.
Some call it justice, others call it vengeance. But for Kim’s family, it was simply the end of a nightmare that began the day Kim married David Cox. The system failed Kim. A judge granted bail to a man who had promised to kill. That decision cost Kim her life, but at least Cox kept one promise.
He said he would be executed, and he was. For what it’s worth, justice was served, even if it came 11 years too late. What do you think? Should David Cox have been executed or should he have been forced to live with his crimes in prison? Let us know in the comments below. If this case made you angry about how the system failed Kim Cox, subscribe to True Crime Matters for more stories that expose the cracks in our justice system.
Like this video and share it to spread awareness. This has been True Crime Matters. Thank you for watching and remember the system only works when we hold it accountable.
