HAMPTON, Va. – Cory Bigsby, the Hampton father of missing 4-year-old Codi, faced a judge in person Thursday afternoon. He waved to his family in the courtroom and looked noticeably skinnier.
Bigsby is facing several felony charges of child neglect, all unrelated to his son’s disappearance on Jan. 31.
Thursday, Bigsby’s lawyers asked the judge to throw out any statements he made to detectives during questioning at police headquarters that included a two-and-a-half-hour polygraph test on Jan. 31.
Bigsby’s defense team argued his constitutional rights were violated and he was mistreated when he was questioned by police right after he reported Codi missing. During the several hours of questioning, they say the father wasn’t asked to take a rest or sleep and it was never made clear he could leave at any point.
After nearly four hours of argument and witness testimony, the judge denied the defense’s motion to throw out that evidence ahead of the trial in November.
“We wanted all statements out and they threw out half of them,” Bigsby’s lawyer Curtis Brown said. “We thought all of them should have been out.”
Bigsby reported his son missing on Jan. 31. Police previously stated that the father voluntarily went to police headquarters after reporting Codi missing.
Two detectives took the stand Thursday saying during questioning starting on Jan. 31 to 4:13 a.m. on Feb. 1, Bigsby did not ask for a lawyer and was not under arrest at that point, so he was free to leave.
Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell told the court prosecutors will not use any statements Bigsby made when he did request a lawyer after 4:13 a.m. and was denied that right.
On Feb. 14, the Hampton Police chief said an internal audit of Bigsby’s recorded interrogation found he asked for a lawyer twice and those requests were ignored.
“Whenever you ask for an attorney, you should be given that right to an attorney,” Bell said. “All we wanted to bring in is those statements made prior to, and the court has granted us that permission to bring those statements in, and we agree with that ruling. We're happy about it.”
Cory was charged on Feb. 3 with seven counts of felony child neglect, stemming from incidents at the end of 2021. Police said those charges are based on interviews and evidence in the early hours of the investigation.
Codi still hasn’t been found.
Volunteer search groups were inside the courtroom Thursday. They’ve been looking for Codi since he disappeared.
“We want this baby found, so we can bring him home,” said Nancy Strickland with We are Codi’s Voice.
Charese Howard with the We are Codi’s Voice search group, said the case is losing focus.
“This is turning into a circus,” Howard said. “One of the key things that was the main concern is where’s Codi? We're not concerned about how long he was being questioned, or the timeframe. The timeframe is, where is this child? You’re wasting time. Be a man, stand up. Admit something happened, but don’t keep dragging this out.”
The trial date for Bigsby is set for Nov. 7, 9, and 10.
