Cox has long criminal history
David Cox, the 42 gangster convicted today of murdering Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins has a violent criminal history dating back to his teenage years.He and members of his family have also been implicated in prior gun crimes related to the 42 gang.His cousin, Cervio Cox, was last year convicted of being an accomplice to a gun attack on Mr Rawlins’ family on Court Street in May 2009, and jailed for seven years.On that occasion, 16-year-old Parkside associate Jdun Thompson and C&R Discount Store workers Raymond Burgess Jr and his father Raymond Sr were injured by an unknown gunman.Mr Burgess Sr is Mr Rawlins’ father and Mr Burgess Jr is his brother.Police gang expert Sergeant Alexander Rollin described Cervio Cox, now 27, during his trial as an associate of the 42 gang.His car was used during the gun attack and he admitted loaning it to gangsters on 42nd Street, AKA St Monica’s Road, that morning.Prosecutor Robert Welling alleged that Cervio Cox was the getaway driver in the triple shooting. Mr Welling said he got involved in the crime in retaliation for the gun murder on St. Monica’s Road the day before of his friend Kenwandee (Wheels) Robinson.Cervio Cox’s cousin, Mikey Adams, was seriously injured in that same incident.According to Sgt Rollin’s evidence, Mr Robinson and Mr Adams were members of 42.David Cox told police during interviews over the Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins murder that Kenwandee (Wheels) Robinson was a good friend of his too.Defence lawyer Jerome Lynch QC suggested it was Cervio Cox’s cousin Daniel Cox, now 29, and the youngest of David Cox’s three brothers, who was the getaway driver.Cervio Cox described Daniel Cox as “that gangster type” during his evidence, and Sgt Rollin described him as a 42 member.David Cox was in prison at the time of the May 2009 triple shooting and was never implicated in the crime, prosecutor Cindy Clarke stated during the Rawlins murder trial.The culprit responsible for pulling the trigger on Mr Rawlins’ father and brother has not been brought to justice.David Cox’s name has also been linked to other gun attacks during previous Supreme Court trials.He was named by Sgt Rollin as a member of the 42 gang during the trial of a Middletown gang member named Antonio Myers earlier this year.According to witnesses in the Myers trial, Cox was involved in a drink-throwing altercation with the mother of a Middletown gang member at the Devonshire Recreation Club in the early hours of December 5 2009.According to Sgt Rollin, the gangs 42 and Middletown are enemies locked in deadly warfare, with Middletown being an offshoot of the Parkside gang.Just an hour-and-a-half after the altercation at Devonshire Rec, Kumi Harford, a high-ranking member of 42 according to Sgt Rollin, was shot dead on St Monica’s Road.Prosecutor Rory Field said there was a direct link between the drink-throwing involving David Cox and the Middletown mother, and the murder of Mr Harford.He suggested Mr Myers, a self-confessed member of the Middletown gang, exacted payback against 42 member Mr Harford due to the insult meted out to Middletown by Cox.During his police interview over the Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins murder, Cox described Kumi Harford as one of several friends he’d lost to gun violence.The Myers trial also heard that a .40 calibre semi-automatic gun used to kill Mr Harford was also used in the murders of Cox’s friends Kenwandee Robinson and Perry Puckerin and used to shoot at his brother Daniel Cox in February 2009.David Cox was arrested over the murder of alleged Parkside and Middletown associate Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins the morning it happened on August 9 2010, having turned himself in to Hamilton Police Station.A judge imposed a news blackout when he was taken to Supreme Court on August 12 2010. On that date, prosecutor Cindy Clarke applied under recent amendments to the Firearms Act for police to be able to hold him in custody longer.The amendments allow Police to detain gun suspects for up to a month without charge so they can carry on gathering evidence.They’d only had three days to charge or release suspects before the law was changed, and are believed to have used their new powers for the first time in the Cox case.Cox was brought to court with a blanket over his head amid tight security. Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons granted an extension to police to carry on holding him in custody.She also issued an injunction preventing the media from publishing anything likely to identify him until such time as he may be charged before the courts with an offence.That happened when Cox was brought to Hamilton Magistrates’ Court 13 days later on August 25 2010 and charged with the crimes for which he was convicted today; the premeditated murder of Mr Rawlins and using a gun to commit murder.
Born on July 16 1979, David Jahwell Cox, nicknamed Coxy, has a serious criminal history dating back to the age of 14 and has spent several stints behind bars:
July 1993 - October 1998: Cox made several appearances before the juvenile court where he was convicted in four cases of breaking and entering and stealing. He was also convicted of stealing a bike and riding it while underage and with no insurance.
He went on to rack up convictions in the adult courts for using offensive words, possessing cannabis twice, obstructing and assaulting police and assault.
In one incident on December 21 1996, when Cox was 17, he was caught red-handed with cannabis in St Monica's Road, Pembroke. He admitted the offence at Magistrates' Court in August 1997. The court heard he was seen buying the drugs in plain view of two uniformed police officers patrolling in a marked car.
July 31 1999: Cox participated in the violent robbery of 19-year-old Aaron Hooper at a reggae concert in St David's. His trial, in December 2000, heard Cox surrounded Mr Hooper with a gang of at least ten other men. He pulled a ring off the victim's finger, and Mr Hooper was then chased by the group and stabbed in the stomach. Cox was unanimously convicted by a jury of aggravated robbery on December 14 2000 and jailed on May 21 2001 for three-and-half years.
October 21 2000: Cox was himself stabbed, suffering a punctured lung, during a fight at the Devonshire Recreation Club. When the case came to trial in mid-May 2001 he was brought from Westgate, where he was awaiting sentence for stabbing Mr Hooper, to testify against his own alleged attacker, Ashley Wellman.
Mr Wellman was cleared in a unanimous not guilty verdict on May 17 2001 and walked free. Defence lawyer Larry Scott had argued Cox was too intoxicated on alcohol and cannabis to say for sure who stabbed him.
December 3 2003: Cox was charged along with Michael Puckerin with robbing a man, Usecto Durrant, of a $10,000 gold chain in the early hours of November 10 2003. Prosecutors alleged the victim was beaten and robbed outside the Spinning Wheel nightclub on Court Street; the venue where, six-and-a-half years later, Cox shot Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins dead.
The Supreme Court case against Cox and Puckerin collapsed on February 9 2005 when only two of the Crown's three witnesses turned up to court.
One of them, Mr Durrant, refused to give evidence, although he denied he had been intimidated.
Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons ordered the jury to clear the men.
August 27 2004: While awaiting trial for the alleged robbery of Mr Durrant, Cox committed a brutal robbery that began outside the Swinging Doors nightclub, across the road from the Spinning Wheel.
Cox and his accomplice Antoine Anderson attacked Torrick Williams as he left Swinging Doors. They carried on the assault in Angle Street and St Monica's Road, at which point others joined in.
During the violent attack, Anderson placed the victim in a choke-hold and Cox pulled him by the hair. Mr Williams was pushed to the ground and kicked about his body for ten to 15 minutes. He was also beaten with a two-by-four piece of wood, punched, and had locks of his hair chopped off.
Mr Williams was able to escape in the Ducking Stool area of Pembroke and was left suffing from bruising and swelling. Cox and Anderson were originally charged with kidnap, causing grievous bodily harm, robbery and demanding property with menaces with intent to steal.
The Crown accepted their pleas, entered on September 28 2006, to the lesser offence of causing actual bodily harm and accepted not guilty pleas on the other charges.
Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves called the attack “unmerciful” and jailed Cox and Anderson for 18 months. Anderson went on to be convicted and jailed for life for the execution-style shooting of Aquil Richardson on Boxing Day 2007.
July 8 2006: Cox wielded a two-foot machete inside the Devonshire Recreation Club. As people fled the crowded bar he swung it around a table and hit a glass door.
Cox was convicted at Magistrates' Court on 27 October 2006 and jailed for three years.
May 23 2010: Cox was alleged to have snatched a gold chain from victim Ellesworth Smith at Gombey's Bar in St Davids. He was also alleged to have told him: “I know what to do with guys like you; shoot you.”
Cox was charged on May 31 2010 and remanded into custody after pleading not guilty.
Prosecutors dropped the case on July 12 2010 saying Mr Smith had received his chain back and had “no interest in pursuing the matter and giving evidence”.
Less than a month later, on August 9 2010, Cox and another unknown gunman chased Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins into the Spinning Wheel nightclub and shot him dead.
