Daniel Cox, the 35-year-old Kentucky dad of four now charged with beating one of his children — a four-month-old baby — to death, appeared before a judge on Monday with the first chance to explain what witnesses described as his horrifying and bizarre actions in public. Or anywhere for that matter.
As reported Sunday by the Inquisitr , Cox was spotted last Thursday driving a gold Mercury Grand Marquis on South Dixie Highway in Kentucky by witnesses in another car who called police when they saw what they said was Cox savagely and repeatedly striking a baby in a car seat as he drove.
The witnesses said that while Cox hit the baby so hard that his car would swerve out of its lane every time he swung his arm to strike, he also appeared to be “bouncing” to music in the car and adjusting his hat in between landing deadly blows on the baby.
The baby turned out to be four-month-old Jayceon Chrystie. While Cox did not live with the child, according to the baby’s mother Kimberly Ann Chrystie, Cox showed up on Thursday and asked to take little Jayceon with him for a visit.
In a court filing, Kimberly Ann Chrystie wrote of her horror when the baby’s dad brought the little boy back.
“He dropped my child off almost two hours later, beat up all black and blue,” she wrote on Friday, requesting a protective order against Cox. “I called 911 as soon as I seen my son.”
But by Saturday there was no longer a need for a protective order against Cox, because little Jayceon had died, the victim of what Jefferson County Deputy Coroner Robert Fraction called “inflicted traumatic injury to the head.”
Why on Earth would Cox commit such a monstrous atrocity? That’s what police have been trying to figure out. After his arrest, they said, Cox — whose charge was elevated from assault to murder following Jayceon’s death — never gave a clue regarding what motivated him to attack and ultimately kill his baby son.
Police are investigating whether Cox had a criminal history, but Radcliff, Kentucky, Police Chief said that so far investigators have uncovered no significant police record for the 35-year-old.
David Trimble, who is the grandfather to another of Cox’s children, said he believes Cox has issues with excessive anger.
“I think he has a temper, because me and him had words when I first met him right here in my driveway,” Trimble told Louisville TV station WLKY . “I think whatever punishment he gets, he really deserves.”
But even that doesn’t fully explain the shocking and baffling way he attacked his son while, according to the witness account, driving and listening to music.
“Nobody know what his motive was,” Trimble said.
Given the chance to explain himself to a judge Monday, Daniel Cox remained absolutely silent. He is next due to appear in court on Friday.
[Images: WLKY Screen Grabs]