East Texas

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

A 30-year-old Canton man is on trial for felony driving while intoxicated after he allegedly caused a collision in Smith County.

Justin Don Cox, 30, Canton, is on trial for the Feb. 8 incident in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent's court. The DWI charge is enhanced from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony because he has two prior intoxicated assault convictions for causing a collision in Dallas County nearly 10 years ago. He could face two to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Cory Weatherford, 25, a truck driver, testified he and two friends were driving to Tyler on Texas Highway 64 West in his GMC pickup when he saw a white van enter into his lane. He said he swerved to try to miss the van, but the mirrors of the two vehicles collided.

Weatherford, along with his two passengers, Josh Heddin, 23, and Kobey Kimbrell, 19, testified about the incident.

When the van didn't stop after the collision, Weatherford began chasing him down and, after a few miles, drove in front of Cox's vehicle, forcing him to stop, Heddin said.

Weatherford said Cox's neck was bleeding from the broken glass of the mirrors and his eyes were bloodshot. Cox admitted the wreck was his fault, said he would pay for the damage out of his pocket and asked him not to call police, he said. After Weatherford called 911, Cox raised his voice and they all got into a heated argument.

Weatherford said he saw Cox get a bottle of liquor out of his van and throw it into a ditch.

Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Tracey Tullis testified she was called out to the incident. She said about 10 minutes before that call, another person called police reporting a white van was driving recklessly. Jurors were shown a video of the trooper asking Cox to perform several field sobriety tests. Cox repeatedly told Trooper Tullis he was a Marine and that his grandfather had just died; he said he had drunk whiskey at his mother's house in Tyler about an hour and a half earlier. He said the accident was his fault and he believed the two vehicles "touched mirrors."

Trooper Tullis said Cox wasn't able to follow her instructions on any of the tests so she arrested him for DWI because she was concerned for the safety of other motorists on the road. She said that, in his state, the van was capable of causing death.

Trooper Tullis said she found the bottle of whiskey, which had about one-third of it missing, in the ditch near the van. She said the defendant didn't agree to take a Breathalyzer test but there was no question in her mind that he was intoxicated.

She said when she asked him, he said he had never before been convicted of a DWI but she later discovered he had been convicted of two charges of intoxicated assault. He pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and causing serious bodily injury in a collision in 1999 in Dallas County where two people were injured. According to court records, he was placed on probation, but that probation was revoked in July 2007 and he was sentenced to two years in prison.

After the state rested its case, defense attorney John Eastland called Cox to the stand.

The defendant, a self-employed tree cutter, testified he had a drinking problem in 1999 but got into that accident and now he doesn't "mess with alcohol on a regular basis."

On Feb. 8, his pet raccoon died, a financial meeting fell through and he learned his grandfather had died. On his way to see his mother, he bought a bottle of whiskey and hid it in his van to later drink at his Van Zandt County home. But before leaving his mother's house, he "took a couple of swigs" of the alcohol, choked on it and spilled some of it on his shirt, he said.

At the time of the accident, he was talking on the phone when he fumbled with it and heard "a pop." He said he didn't know if someone had shot him with a shotgun and he felt blood on his face so he pulled his van over to the side of the road. He said that's when the men in the pickup blocked him; he said they did not chase him in their vehicle.

Cox said he told the men that if the accident was his fault, he would take care of it but he didn't want the police called; he wanted to go home. He said one of the men mouthed off to him and Weatherford asked to use his phone and he called police. He said while waiting for the trooper, he realized he smelled of alcohol so he threw the bottle into the ditch because he was scared he might be charged with a DWI.

Cox said he had been crying for most of the day so his eyes were blurry and his head was spinning because of the glass shattering on his face and head. He said he understood Trooper Tullis' instructions, but she was going too fast and the lights from her police car were blinding.

He said he did not feel intoxicated but he was very tired. Cox will continue his testimony this morning.