VA - Codi Bigsby, 4, *Dad named POI* Hampton, 31 Jan 2022 - MEDIA, MAPS & TIMELINES *NO DISCUSSION*

JAN 31, 2024
Wednesday marks two years since 4-year-old Codi Bigsby was reported missing from his home near Old Buckroe Road.

Today, community members plan to clean up Codi’s Fence, a spot that’s memorialized Codi since his disappearance.

HAMP-Codi-Bigsby-event_1706654903.jpg


[...]

Cory is out on bond. His jury trial is in March.

The rally at Codi’s Fence is from 6 to 8 p.m.
 
FEB 13, 2024

Cory Bigsby hearing ahead of trial

 
FEB 13, 2024

Cory Bigsby, Hampton man accused in son Codi's death, has pre-trial hearing

Bigsby is out on bond. Tuesday, he appeared in court wearing civilian clothes, alongside his legal team who requested that Judge James Hawks allow testimony in the trial from two doctors who have been treating Bigsby.

During the pre-trial hearing, Attorney Curtis Brown talked about how being in isolation for a long period of time took a toll on his client. He added, "I think the witnesses should be allowed to testify on his mental health."

The Commonwealth's Attorney argued that it could open the door to an insanity plea. After hearing both sides, Judge Hawkins ruled the two doctors could not testify.
 
FEB 27, 2024
Cory Bigsby, the man accused of killing his 4-year-old son Codi Bigsby, will remain out on bail ahead of his March 4 trail.

Bigsby was granted bond by a judge on June 21 with some restrictions.

Hampton Commonwealth’s attorney Anton Bell appealed the decision on Feb. 26, stating previously that Bigsby “is a danger to the community with a history of going AWOL in the military.”

[...]
 
MAR 1, 2024
  • The trial is scheduled to begin Monday, March 4, at Hampton Circuit Court.
  • Cory is charged with murder and concealing the body.
  • He also faces charges of child neglect unrelated to Codi’s disappearance.
  • Cory has been out on bond since the summer of 2023.
  • Curtis Brown will be the lead defense attorney and Judge James Hawks will preside.
  • News 3 will have a crew at the trial starting March 4.
  • Jury selection is set to begin Monday.
  • Correctional officers testified that Bigsby made several possible confessions while at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail.
  • The statements were graphic and disturbing. Although inconsistent and contradictory, all versions ended with Codi's death or killing.
  • Amina Matheny-Willard said jail staff tormented her client and coerced the admission.
  • However, prosecutors will be allowed to use the jailhouse statements in trial.
 
MAR 1, 2024
  • The trial is scheduled to begin Monday, March 4, at Hampton Circuit Court.
  • Cory is charged with murder and concealing the body.
  • He also faces charges of child neglect unrelated to Codi’s disappearance.
  • Cory has been out on bond since the summer of 2023.
  • Curtis Brown will be the lead defense attorney and Judge James Hawks will preside.
  • News 3 will have a crew at the trial starting March 4.
  • Jury selection is set to begin Monday.
  • Correctional officers testified that Bigsby made several possible confessions while at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail.
  • The statements were graphic and disturbing. Although inconsistent and contradictory, all versions ended with Codi's death or killing.
  • Amina Matheny-Willard said jail staff tormented her client and coerced the admission.
  • However, prosecutors will be allowed to use the jailhouse statements in trial.
Will this be televised?
 
MAR 4, 2024
Timeline:

January 31, 2022:
Cory reported Codi missing. The boy was last seen at his Buckroe Pointe Apartment Townhome. Since his disappearance, police and the community have conducted several searches for Codi.

A few days after the missing report, Cory was arrested for child abuse. Bigsby was facing seven child neglect charges after court documents reveal he admitted to leaving his children home alone. We’re told 15 more charges for child neglect were added for leaving the children home alone.

[...]

Bigsby is charged with murder and the concealment of a body, along with dozens of counts of child neglect and abuse for allegedly leaving his other children home alone, charges unrelated to Codi's disappearance. Bigsby is set to go on trial from March 4 through 8.

Court documents obtained by 13News Now in June 2023 state that Bigsby is accused of murdering his son "on or about" June 18, 2021, and doing something to conceal his body with malicious intent and hide the crime from law enforcement.

Codi's body has never been found; that fact will play an important role in the trial's proceedings.
 
MAR 4, 2024
By the end of the first day of trial, 11 members were selected for the smaller pool of 24 needed by attorneys to select from.

Nearly 70 people answered jury duty concerning this case on Monday. They were split up, and the questioning of the first batch of potential jurors will pick back up on Tuesday morning.

The second batch should return on Tuesday afternoon.

A jury of 12 and two alternates is needed when all is said and done.
 
MAR 4, 2024
[...]

There are only 18 cases in Virginia history of a murder being prosecuted without a body, according to a database compiled by Tad DiBiase, a former federal prosecutor who prosecuted such a case. The list goes back to 1810. But it’s the second such case on the Peninsula in recent months, following a Newport News murder case late last year.

[...]

... A second trial against Bigsby, on the series of child neglect charges involving Codi and his brothers, will take place later.
 
MAR 5, 2024
Opening statements are expected Tuesday in the murder trial for Cory Bigsby, the man accused of killing his 4-year-old son. Cory Bigsby was charged with second-degree murder and concealing a dead body.

Jury selection in the case began Monday morning but will extend into Tuesday morning.
 
MAR 5, 2024

5:45 p.m. — Jury nearly seated

A second full day of jury selection has come to an end and it will pick up again, beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Progress is being made, however. From a pool of nearly 70 potential jurors, the attorneys and judge have whittled that number down to 26.

[...]

...That will be the first objective on Wednesday morning, with opening statements to follow shortly afterward.

4:45 p.m. — Potential juror calls case a 'hot mess'

[...]

In court, one of those potential jurors described the circumstances of this case as a "hot mess" due to the multiple perspectives and concerns at play.

At one point during Tuesday's proceedings, one of Bigsby's attorneys, Curtis Brown, asked Judge James Hawks to recuse himself from the case. Brown accused the judge of siding with the prosecution too often in requests whether to keep or release a potential juror.
Judge Hawks denied the defense's motion right away.

[...]
 
MAR 5, 2024
[...]

Potential jurors were asked whether they read news coverage of the case — and whether they had made up their minds on what happened. If jurors said in any way that they they decided the case in their minds — such as that Bigsby likely killed his son — they were immediately stricken from the jury list.

[...]

In another large subject of jury selections, jurors were asked if they could convict someone of murder even if the body hasn’t been found. Several jurors — called into the courtroom one by one to be questioned — had significant hesitation about that.

[...]

Jurors were also asked if they could find the testimony of a 7-year-old witness credible.

One of Codi’s older brothers — now 7 — is expected to testify for the prosecution via a two-way camera at this week’s trial. Though several would-be jurors said they would tend to trust an adult’s testimony more than a 7-year-old’s, they said they would listen to any such testimony before deciding a verdict.

[...]
 
Tomorrow morning, a jury of 12 members and two alternates in the trial of Cory Bigsby will likely be seated. Media exposure and formed opinions struck several people from qualifying on the jury. Bigsby had no comment walking out of the courthouse on Tuesday.@13NewsNow

Updated MAR 5, 2024
Testimony should begin Wednesday, and among the witnesses for the Commonwealth are Codi Bigsby’s mother and his older brother, who is still just 7-years-old.

Defense attorney Curtis Brown has moved for a mistrial twice, and then moved for Judge James Hawks to recuse himself.
 
MAR 6, 2024
[...]

Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell is prosecuting his first no-body case this week against Cory Bigsby, who is accused of killing his son Codi. DiBiase says Bell must prove both guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that Codi was even murdered.

“Here, without a body, we don’t know what the manner of death was, or what the cause of death was, and that becomes a real challenge. So, you have to rely on circumstantial evidence,” he said.

No-body murder trials end with convictions (88%) far more often than murder trials with a body (71%), according to DiBiase’s research. He pointed to two possible factors: prosecutors likely only send the strongest of cases to trial, and juries may find it easier to convict when there is a relationship between the defendant and the victim – like in the Bigsby case.

[...]
 
MAR 6, 2024
[...]

Kareem was shown a picture of Codi ... She said it was the last picture she knows of him and it was in June 2021 — seven months before he went missing, taken at his twin brothers‘ birthdays.

It was that month that prosecutors say Bigsby killed his son, even though he did not report the child missing until seven months later.

The relationship ended in 2019, and a year later, she testified she had major health problems. Kareem agreed that Cory Bigsby could have custody. ...

... She testified that Nov. 1, 2020 was the last time she ever saw any of her children prior to Codi’s disappearance, and that Cory Bigsby refused to give her his home address in Hampton so she could visit.

Kareem testified that Bigsby sent her an email in April 2021, saying “I need to bring Codi back to you, I don’t want to severely hurt him.” ...

[...]
 
Bigsby murder trial updates: Mother of missing Codi says Cory ghosted her after handing kids off to him in 2020.

12 p.m. — Testimony underway in Bigsby trial​

On the third day of the trial for Cory Bigsby in Hampton, testimony is underway.
Jurors are hearing from the mother of Codi, Dina Abdul Kareem after prosecuting attorneys called her as their first witness.

She took the stand and appeared to be struck by emotion — having to identify the defendant and her ex, Cory Bigsby, as well as a photo of her missing son Codi.

They share four children, including Codi, who Bigsby reported missing in January 2022.

In court Wednesday morning, Kareem spoke about custodial disputes with Bigsby. Those ultimately led to what she calls an agreement on co-parenting. Kareem, who moved to DC, testified she handed off their four children to Bigsby at a halfway point from Hampton in November 2020.

From then on, Kareem testified Bigsby, for the most part, ghosted her. She said she didn’t have access to her children, despite her attempts to reach Bigsby.
 
11:35 a.m. — Opening statements done
Opening statements in the murder trial of Cory Bigsby are done and prosecutors have called Codi's mother to the stand.

12 p.m. — Testimony underway in Bigsby trial
On the third day of the trial for Cory Bigsby in Hampton, testimony is underway.

Jurors are hearing from the mother of Codi, Dina Abdul Kareem after prosecuting attorneys called her as their first witness.

She took the stand and appeared to be struck by emotion — having to identify the defendant and her ex, Cory Bigsby, as well as a photo of her missing son Codi.

They share four children, including Codi, who Bigsby reported missing in January 2022.

In court Wednesday morning, Kareem spoke about custodial disputes with Bigsby. Those ultimately led to what she calls an agreement on co-parenting. Kareem, who moved to DC, testified she handed off their four children to Bigsby at a halfway point from Hampton in November 2020.

From then on, Kareem testified Bigsby, for the most part, ghosted her. She said she didn’t have access to her children, despite her attempts to reach Bigsby.

Bigsby murder trial updates: Mother of missing Codi says Cory ghosted her after handing kids off to him in 2020
 

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