Cory Bigsby was found guilty on Tuesday of killing his 4-year-old son, Codi Bigsby.
Bigsby was on trial for charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a body in connection to Codi's death. He was convicted on both charges.
Bigsby still faces child abuse and neglect charges unrelated to Codi's disappearance.
The jury reached its verdict on the seventh day of the trial against Bigsby.
The guilty verdict comes over two years after Codi was reported missing by Bigsby on Jan. 31, 2022. To this day, Codi’s body hasn’t been found, but law enforcement believes he’s dead.
The prosecution argued that Bigsby had actually killed Codi on or around June 18, 2021 — about seven months before he called 911 to report him missing.
Bigsby did not take the stand during the trial.
The jurors heard testimony from a variety of witnesses throughout the trial, including Codi's relatives, corrections officers who interacted with Bigsby, and people who played a role in investigating Codi's disappearance.
The defense called Codi's paternal aunt to the stand, who claimed to have seen Codi after the timeframe police believe Cory killed his son.
Notable moments from testimonies are as follows:
Codi's older brother claimed their father would often punish Codi.
He also claimed there was an instance in which he couldn’t wake up his brother Codi. “His face was red, it was dry, and it was bruised,” the brother said.
The brother recalled the exchange he had with his father following the alleged incident: “I asked him what was wrong with Codi. He said nothing was wrong with him,” the brother said.
When the prosecution asked the boy if he believed his dad, he said: “No…because he [Codi] looked dead.”
Codi's mother Dina Kareem also provided testimony.
- On the stand, Kareem claimed that she and Cory Bigsby, who share four kids, have not been in a relationship since 2019. After she was hospitalized in 2020, she left their children in the care of Bigsby, she claimed.
- She claimed she had not spoken to Codi since April 2021 – about nine months before he was reported missing.
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She claimed that in April 2021, she got an email from Bigsby that read, in part, "He's [Codi] still doing the same stuff... He needs to come back to you... I do not want to seriously hurt him to protect my babies." She did not believe the claims Bigsby was making in the email, she said.
- Cory Bigsby's sister, Tandaleyia Butler, testified that she saw her nephew Codi in September of 2021 at her home in D.C. — which would be after police believe Bigsby killed his son.