Accused’s cellphone silent after killing

Kaz Henry Cox’s cellphone went quiet shortly after Triston Reece was fatally shot in July 2019 and it remained inactive for almost four days, the jury at his murder trial heard Tuesday.

Cox, 43, is standing trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Dartmouth on a charge of first-degree murder.

A Telus security investigator testified Tuesday via a video link from Toronto.

Don Calpito said the phone company turned over records for several clients, including Cox, after receiving production orders from police.

Reece, 19, was shot in the head July 26, 2019, at 5:32 p.m. while sitting in a parked vehicle on Scot Street in westend Halifax, near the driveway to the house where Cox’s estranged wife and their two teenage daughters were living. He died in hospital early the next day.

The Crown alleges Cox pulled up beside Reece’s vehicle in a car that was regularly used by his wife and fired five shots at the young man before driving away.

The car Cox was allegedly operating, a grey Pontiac G5, was set on fire later that night in a remote area off Aylesford Road in Kings County, about eight kilometres from the Lunenburg County line.

Rulla Cox testified last week that, at Kaz’s request, she changed the licence plate on the car about an hour before the shooting. She said Kaz left her driveway in the car at about 4:45 p.m. that day and never returned the vehicle, which was owned by her boss, Jason Weagle.

She also testified that Kaz later instructed her to tell Weagle to notify his insurance company that the car had been stolen.

On Tuesday, the Crown entered the cellphone records of Kaz Cox, Rulla Cox, their daughter Tatiana, Reece, Olivia Zinck and Miranda Taylor into evidence through the Telus official.

Calpito confirmed that Cox’s cellphone was used to place a call to his mother July 26 at 5:35 p.m. – three minutes after the shooting. The call lasted nine minutes and 56 seconds and was followed by an 83-second call to Weagle at 5:46 p.m.

Cox’s phone pinged off a tower in the Bayers Road area of Halifax at the start of the first call and then off towers on Washmill Lake Drive and Chain Lake Drive during the second

call, Calpito said.

‘GAP IN USAGE’

Whoever had Cox’s cellphone stopped using it that night, the Telus official said. Cox’s phone number stayed inactive until the afternoon of July 30, when a new SIM card associated with it was activated in a different phone.

“There’s definitely a gap in usage between the 26th and the 30th, meaning that the phone was not connected to the network during that time frame,” Calpito said.

He said that could have been because the phone had been turned off, the battery died, or the user was in an area where there was no cellular service.

That same SIM card was switched into another phone Aug. 2. That phone was allegedly seized from Cox by RCMP on the South Shore following an unrelated traffic stop Aug. 21. The car Cox was driving that day, a silver Honda Civic, was also owned by Weagle.

Calpito also pointed out that a call to Zinck’s phone July 26 at 7:43 p.m. went unanswered.

Zinck told the court last week that Kaz Cox, the father of her daughter, showed up at her residence in East Chester that night and said he wanted her to follow his vehicle to the Annapolis Valley. She said he pulled onto a dirt road off the Aylesford Road, drove into the woods and walked out a few minutes later.

She said they continued to the Valley before driving to the city, where they stopped at Taylor’s apartment in Dartmouth, and then to East Chester.

The prosecution also planned to call evidence about Weagle’s cellphone from a Bell employee Tuesday, but defence lawyer Alexandra Mamo agreed the records could be entered as exhibits without any testimony.

Crown attorneys Rick Woodburn and Sarah Kirby have not led any evidence about the motive for the slaying. But during cross-examination by the defence last week, Rulla Cox admitted police told her during questioning in November 2019 that Reece had sexually assaulted Tatiana and had been pimping her out.

Rulla said that came as a complete surprise to her. She also said she remembered Tatiana and Kaz going to the basement of her house for a conversation, but said she had no idea when that took place or what they talked about.

A jury of eight women and six men is hearing the case, with Justice Jamie Campbell presiding.