Appeals court hears McHenry Co. businessman's bid for new trial

A slew of judicial errors before and during the trial of Billy J. Cox prevented the jury that convicted him of attempted murder from seeing problems in the case against him, an attorney for the once prominent McHenry County businessman told an Illinois appeals court Wednesday.

Cox, 68, is asking the state's Second District Court of Appeals to overturn his conviction, toss out his 20-year prison sentence and order a new trial on allegations he viciously beat his wife then left her for dead five years ago on the couple's sprawling Bull Valley estate.

A McHenry County jury convicted Cox in April 2007, finding he repeatedly struck his wife with a blunt object and then locked her in a garage alongside two running vehicles. Carolyn Cox, who he had been married to for more than four decades, survived only because a police officer performing a well-being check found her before she was completely overwhelmed by poisonous carbon monoxide fumes.

With no eyewitnesses or physical evidence linking Billy Cox to the September 2004 attack, his wife's testimony became the central piece of evidence against him.

His attorney, Phyllis Perko, argued Wednesday that Cox did not receive a fair trial, in part because the McHenry County judge presiding over it barred an expert witness who would testify about false memories. The defense contends her claims she was beaten by her husband were the result of false memories, perhaps the result of suggestions by other family members.

"When you read (Carolyn Cox's) testimony, there are gaps and inconsistencies that are unexplained," Perko said.

Although justices at times seemed interested in the argument, they also asked Perko pointed questions about the likelihood that Carolyn Cox could have suffered her injuries any way other than at her husband's hands.

The defense claims she was hurt when she fell from a ladder in the home's garage, a theory justices appeared to find improbable.

"It's very difficult for me to fathom how else this would have happened," Justice Mary S. Schostok said. "Why should we question (the verdict) the jury came back with?"

Justices took the case under advisement, giving no timeline for when they might issue a decision.

Cox, a noted scientist and founder of Richmond-based Exacto, Inc., currently is serving his term in the Dixon Correctional Center. He will not be eligible for parole until 2022, when he would be 81 years old.