Accused’s estranged wife testifies for Crown
The Crown put Kaz Henry Cox’s estranged wife on the stand Wednesday at his firstdegree murder trial.
Rulla Cox testified that she changed the licence plate on her vehicle at the behest of Kaz Cox on the afternoon of July 26, 2019.
She said Kaz Cox left her house at the corner of Joseph Howe Drive and Scot Street in west-end Halifax with the car at about 4:45 p.m. and she hasn’t seen the vehicle since.
The Crown alleges Kaz Cox returned to Scot Street in the car about 45 minutes later, pulled up beside a parked vehicle and shot the driver, 19-year-old Triston Reece, in the head.
Reece died in hospital early the next day.
The Crown’s theory is that Kaz Cox drove the vehicle, a Pontiac G5, down Highway 103 to the South Shore, where it was torched in a wooded area off Aylesford Road in Lunenburg County.
Kaz Cox, now 43, was arrested and charged with firstdegree murder Nov. 15, 2019, the same day Rulla was picked up by police for questioning.
Kaz Cox’s jury trial began this week in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Dartmouth and is scheduled to run until June 20.
During direct examination by Crown attorney Rick Woodburn, Rulla Cox told the court the car she was using in July 2019 was owned by Jason Weagle, her boss and friend. She said Weagle and her husband had been friends for many years.
She said she and her two daughters took a trip to the South Shore Exhibition in Bridgewater on the morning of July 26 but didn’t stay long and were home by early afternoon.
After Kaz Cox left with the car later that afternoon, she said she and the kids and one of their friends took a cab to Dartmouth, where they had supper and walked around Alderney Landing.
When they tried to return home, the neighbourhood was blocked off by police, so they got the cab to drop them off at Halifax Shopping Centre and spent the night at a family friend’s apartment in Dartmouth.
Rulla Cox said she tried to call Kaz a few times that night and the next day, but he never answered his phone. The next time she saw him, she said he asked her to tell Weagle to notify his insurance company the vehicle had been stolen.
She said she didn’t ask Kaz why he wanted the licence plate changed.
“I had done it a million times before,” she said. “I never thought anything of it. … I did what I was asked.”
Rulla also said she didn’t ask Kaz why the car needed to be reported stolen.
She said she did not know Reece and had never met him.
She said she was aware her daughter Tatiana Cox, who was 18 at the time, knew Reece from Citadel High School.
“I just didn’t know the extent of the relationship,” Rulla said. “Mind you, my daughter at the time was a teenager and they’re not always forthcoming with who they’re hanging out with. Sometimes they make choices that they decide to keep to themselves and not inform their parents of.”
14-HOUR INTERROGATION
On cross-examination, defence lawyer Alexandra Mamo pointed out that during a 14-hour interrogation of Rulla on Nov. 15 and 16, 2019, a police officer revealed information to her about Tatiana’s relationship with Reece.
“The information the officer relayed to you was that Tatiana had been assaulted by Mr. Reece, specifically sexually assaulted,” Mamo said. “Correct,” Rulla replied. “And the word the officer actually used when she was describing this to you, she told you Tatiana had been ‘raped’ by Mr. Reece,” Mamo said.
“And the officer also told you that Tatiana had been working as a sex worker at the direction of Mr. Reece. Is that what you understood?” “Correct,” Rulla said.
“I take it from the interrogation that this was the first time you’d heard this information?” the lawyer asked.
“I did not know any of that,” Rulla said. “As much as I was close to my child and my children, there’s still a part of their life, or her life, that I totally knew nothing about.”
She agreed with the lawyer’s suggestion that the news took her completely by surprise.
Mamo said the officer also showed Rulla printouts of online advertisements offering sexual services by her daughter.
Rulla told the officer that learning all this made her feel like she had failed her daughter.
Eleven hours into the interview, Rulla finally admitted to police that Kaz had asked her to switch the licence plate, but she did not mention his request to report that the vehicle had been stolen.
She explained to the court that it never dawned on her to mention that, and also said she still might have felt some loyalty to Kaz at that time. “My relationship with him then was different than it is now,” she said.