Allen Cox was sentenced to death by the State Of Florida for a murder that took place in prison
According to court documents Allen Cox was serving a life sentence for sexual assault and murder when he believed that Thomas Baker broke into his footlocker.
Allen Cox would stab and beat Thomas Baker to death
Allen Cox Photos
Allen Cox FAQ
Where Is Allen Cox Now
Allen Cox is incarcerated at Union Correctional Institution
Allen Cox Case
On February 5, 1999, a grand jury indicted Appellant, Allen Ward Cox, forpremeditated murder and battery which occurred in a detention facility.
1 The charges against Cox resulted from a chain of events within the Lake Correctiona lInstitute (“LCI”) that culminated in the death of Thomas Baker and an assault uponLawrence Wood. At trial, the State presented the testimony of numerous corrections officers and inmates regarding the circumstances surrounding the murderof Baker, who was also a LCI inmate.
On December 20, 1998, the appellant discovered that someone had broken into his personal footlocker and stolen approximately $500. Upon making this discovery, Cox walked out onto the balconyof his dorm and announced that he would give fifty dollars to anyone willing to identify the thief. He also indicated that when he discovered who had stolen from him, he would stab and kill that person, and that he did not care about the consequences.
During the prison’s lunch period on December 21, the appellant called Baker over to him, and then hit him with his fists to knock him down. During the attack,the victim continuously attempted to break free from Cox, and also denied stealing from him multiple times. At a lull in the beating, the appellant said, “This ain’t good enough,” and stabbed Baker with an icepick-shaped shank2 three times.
After the stabbing, Appellant walked away stating, “It ain’t over, I’ve got one more . . . toget.” He then walked behind the prison pump house and hid the shiv in a pipe proceeded from the pump house to his dorm, where he encountered Donny Cox(unrelated to the appellant). There, Appellant questioned him about his stolen money and told him that if Cox had his money, he would kill him also. Following this exchange, the appellant returned to his cell, where he next attacked his cellmate,Lawrence Wood, advising him that Wood was “lucky I put it up, or I’d get [you].” While the appellant was returning to his cell, the stabbing victim fled the attack scene and ran to corrections officers in a nearby building. The officers present at the time testified at trial that Baker had blood coming from his mouth, and that he was hysterically complaining that his lungs were filling with blood. Baker also responded to the prison officials’ questions regarding who had attacked him by saying, “Big Al, Echo dorm, quad three.” Although the corrections officers attempted to expedite emergency treatment of the victim by placing him on a stretcher and carrying him on foot to the prison medical center, Baker died before arriving at the hospital.Doctor Janet Pillow testified that upon her autopsy of the victim, she found that the victim had been stabbed three times. Two of the wounds inflicted were shallow punctures of the lower torso, but the fatal wound had entered the victim’s back and traveled through the chest cavity, between two ribs, and finally pierced the lungs and aorta.
She testified that a conscious person with this wound would suffer from “air hunger,” and would be aware of the “serious danger of dying.” She described the wound as being approximately 17.5 centimeters deep, although only two millimeters wide. Doctor Pillow verified that the shank found by the pump house was consistent with the victim’s injuries, despite the fact that the wound was deeper than the length of the weapon. She attributed the discrepancy between the length of the weapon and the depth of the wound to the elasticity of human tissue.The appellant also testified, contending that all of the previous witnesses were correct, except that they had not seen what truly happened when he, Baker, and Vincent Maynard, a third inmate, were close together.
According to Cox, it was he who had in fact dodged Baker and Maynard’s attempts to stab him, and it was Maynard who actually stabbed Baker in the back accidentally. In Cox’s version of the events, he had only struck the victim because he was defending himself from both of the other attacking men. Following the conclusion of the guilt phase testimony and argument, the jury deliberated, apparently rejected the view of the evidence offered by Cox, and found the appellant guilty of first-degree murder.
https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/supreme-court/2002/sc00-1751.html
