Jury still deliberating fate of manslaughter defendant Cox
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IDAHO FALLS — The jury deciding the fate of 23-year-old Tanner R. Cox will continue to deliberate Saturday, Dec. 5.
The group of six men and six women began deliberating Friday, Dec. 4. They have to decide whether to convict him of voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter or aggravated battery, or to acquit him.
The four-day trial focused on circumstance on May 9, 2015, when Cox admittedly pursued Josh Olzak and Josh Loveless through the streets of Idaho Falls. The chase resulted in a physical confrontation between Cox and Olzak. Cox punched Olzak, knocking him down and causing his head to hit the ground. Olzak died at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center on May 11.
In closing arguments Friday, the prosecution told the jury Olzak wasn’t the first person Cox had a conflict with that night. In fact within an hour earlier, “Mr. Cox punched and knocked another person out cold in the parking lot of the Peppertree,” said Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Clark.
The defense, however, said in its closing statement that Olzak was healing after the incident, was alert and even moving about with the aid of a walker. It wasn’t until a confrontation with medical staff that Olzak was given a sedative and later went into a seizure. Cox’s attorney argued that the medical staff should have drained fluid from his swelling brain sooner.
Read what Cox told the court Thursday here.
We will bring you the jury’s decision as soon as it is available.