Kim Kirk was a young mother with her firstborn child in this photo, years before she met David Cox.
David Neal Cox Sr. faces life in prison or the death penalty in the capital murder of his estranged wife.
Jury selection to decide Cox’s punishment began Monday at the Union County Courthouse.
Cox, 41, of Pontotoc County pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to the May 14, 2010, shooting death of Kim Kirk Cox, 40, at her sister’s home in Sherman.
He also pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping, burglary, firing into a dwelling and three counts of sexual assault during a hostage situation over two minor children.
Capital murder is charged when a death occurs during the commission of another felony crime.
His sentence was deferred until Sept. 17 while a pre-sentence report was conducted to help guide penalty decisions.
District Attorney Ben Creekmore will lead the state’s case against Cox.
Although the shooting occurred on the Union County side of Sherman, the Coxes reportedly lived apart in Pontotoc County.
In October 2010, Cox was indicted on eight counts – capital murder, two kidnapping, burglary, firing into a dwelling and three of sexual battery.
Other charges Cox pleaded guilty to Aug. 15 – listed and explained within a three -count information – were jail escape, burglary and burglary of a dwelling.
An information is a legal charge that doesn’t come from a grand jury as an indictment does.
More than two years ago, the fatal standoff lasted across a Friday night and early into Saturday morning, when law enforcement officers entered the home and arrested David Cox without incident.
Soon after his arrest, Cox heard formal charges against him in Tippah County because the judge was in session there, even though Kim Cox’s death and the hostage-taking occurred in Union County.
Held without bond since 2010, he and another Union County Jail inmate broke out of the Union County Jail on May 13 of this year.
They were arrested a few hours later in different locations.
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