A 30-year-old mother of two who survived being beaten, shot in the head and thrown off a bridge told a Pulaski County jury Thursday that she does not want to believe that a friend accused of helping her assailants really meant to hurt her.
In opening statements at the trial of Joshua Matthew Padilla, deputy prosecutor Erin Stroman called Shannon Nicole Cox's survival "miraculous," and said the woman's account of what happened to her in June 2015 sounds "almost too crazy to be true."
But the Greenbrier woman's testimony is backed up by the physical evidence found by sheriff's deputies: a defective pistol, a shell casing and some of the woman's clothing, Stroman told the seven woman and five men on the jury.
Cox played dead to deceive her assailants, lying in a creek all night before emerging muddy, bloody and half-naked to flag down a passing motorist who got her medical attention, Stroman said. Fearing her attackers had returned, Cox armed herself with a sharp rock and hid in tall grass until she was sure that they weren't in the car, jurors were told.
Padilla, 31, of Sherwood is charged with kidnapping, attempted capital murder and first-degree battery, but is the only one of the three defendants in the case who has chosen to stand trial on charges that could result in a life sentence.
Undisclosed to the jury is that the man who instigated the attack and shot Cox in the head, 37-year-old Nick Edward McDaniel of North Little Rock, has already pleaded guilty to the charges in exchange for receiving a 40-year prison sentence.
Padilla's girlfriend, 30-year-old Samantha LeeAnn McClain, also pleaded guilty and accepted a 25-year sentence.
In his opening remarks, defense attorney Leonardo Monterrey told jurors that Padilla went along with the others only because he was scared of the ferocious and raging McDaniel, who sometimes issued orders that night with a gun pointed at Padilla or McClain.
The attorney showed jurors a larger-than-life photograph of McDaniel, pointing out a Pay Me tattoo on his face, one word under each eye. McDaniel is known as "AZ" because he's willing to do anything from A to Z to get what he wants, Monterrey said.
Monterrey told jurors that the trauma of Cox's ordeal, combined with the large amount of drugs she'd taken that night -- methamphetamine, methadone, hydrocodone and Klonopin -- had ruined her memory and caused her to misunderstand how Padilla had actually twice tried to save her life before she was shot and dumped off a bridge on Fortson Road.
Cox said her tormentors refused what she thought would be her last request: writing a letter of apology to her daughters. She said she had resigned herself to death when the four got to the bridge. She said McDaniel made her sit on the railing, then got a gun that he put in her face and pulled the trigger.
"Nick had been crying, and he said, 'I love you,' and I said, 'I love you too,'" she testified. "He held the gun not far from my head and kept pulling the trigger."
The .380-caliber pistol misfired several times before it went off, the bullet fracturing her skull and lodging in the top left side of her head just below her hairline, Cox said.
Cox, who barely spoke above a whisper during her 85 minutes on the witness stand, briefly pushed back when Monterrey asked her about how well she recalled what had happened or how clearly she could see her attackers that night. She disputed that she'd lost memories about her ordeal, then said she didn't remember every detail.
"You don't believe Josh would do this to you, do you?" the attorney asked.
"With everything in my heart, I hope not," Cox replied, acknowledging that Padilla had no reason to harm her and that she still considers him a friend.
"He was my friend," she said during later questioning. "I want to believe he wanted me to live."
Pressed by deputy prosecutor Leigh Patterson, Cox acknowledged in a whisper that Padilla had beaten her, had gagged her with a sock, blindfolded her with a bandage and then drove her to the bridge where she was shot.
How could she think that Padilla was helping her after he'd done all of that? Patterson asked.
"Because he didn't break any bones. Last time I was beaten up by a man, I had broken bones," Cox responded. "I think having Nick beat me, it would've been worse."
"What about slinging you over a bridge indicated he cared for you?" Patterson asked, the question either going unanswered or Cox's reply too soft for the courtroom to hear.
Prosecutors rested their case by the end of the day, but the day's proceedings ended with Circuit Judge Herb Wright issuing arrest orders for two emergency room doctors who refused to show up in court despite receiving subpoenas.
The judge said deputies should go and arrest physicians C.W. Lyle and Zachary Gene Roe, and escort them to court in handcuffs.
Proceedings are to resume at 8:30 this morning, with the defense calling at least five witnesses. Monterrey has not said whether Padilla will testify.
Of the three defendants, Padilla is the only one with a record of criminal violence.
McDaniel's previous convictions are for forgery, drug possession, commercial burglary and theft. Padilla has felony convictions for drug trafficking, domestic battering and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He also has two misdemeanor battery convictions, including one that he received in jail last year for starting a fight with fellow inmate Kent Wawak shortly after Padilla's arrest in June 2015.
Padilla was sentenced to prison for the first time in 2006, receiving a two-year sentence for punching, kicking and biting a former girlfriend, 31-year-old Jackie Godinez of Jacksonville, in the front yard of her Hamm Court home after they had argued and she told him to leave her home. The couple have a child together.
Four months after he was sentenced, he was arrested in prison over accusations that he had robbed 27-year-old Brandon Birdsong of Jacksonville in July 2006. He pleaded guilty to felony theft in September 2007 in exchange for six years on probation and a $1,000 fine.
He was sentenced to prison a second time, receiving a five-year sentence, for violating his probation and being a felon in possession of a firearm when he was found with a loaded gun next to him in April 2009 during a traffic stop by authorities in Pulaski County in a car driven by Birdsong, court filings show.
Metro on 06/03/2016