Jury to decide fate of man accused of stabbing girlfriend, burying her in shallow grave

Eldoris Graham’s body was found in a shallow grave under a Modesto pedestrian bridge. She had been stabbed in her jugular vein, a lung and her face, her mouth gagged with cloth and duct tape wrapped around her head, neck and hands.

A prosecutor on Thursday told a jury that some stab wounds were 4 inches deep, and some wounds occurred when she was stabbed through the duct tape. Deputy District Attorney Beth O’Hara De Jong said all the evidence points to Graham’s boyfriend, Anthony Coxum.

“This is not a quick heat-of-passion (crime),” the prosecutor argued. “This is a planned, premeditated attack.”

Deputy Public Defender Donnell Snipes, Coxum’s attorney, said the case against his client raises reasonable doubt. He said no evidence links Coxum to the burial site, and investigators never found the murder weapon or determined where Graham was killed.

“There’s no evidence that he committed this crime,” Snipes told the jurors.

Coxum, 40, is on trial accused of stabbing his girlfriend and burying her bound body in the grave near Creekwood Drive and Claus Road, just west of Johansen High School in Modesto. Graham, 28, was last seen alive Dec. 13, 2012. Her body was discovered about a month later.

The attorneys gave their closing arguments Thursday morning.

The prosecutor said it was absurd of the defense to ask the jury to acquit Coxum because the murder weapon and murder scene have not been found. De Jong told the jurors they can’t let Coxum go free just because he succeeded in hiding the knife and cleaning up the crime scene.

Investigators found a bottle of bleach in Graham’s car, which Coxum drove from California to his friend’s home in North Carolina. He arrived at Frederick Elliott’s home Dec. 19, 2012, six days after Graham went missing.

That same night, Coxum made incriminating statements, according to Elliott. He testified that Coxum told him, “That b---- dead, man. That b---- in the ground.” Coxum said this shortly after his father called and informed him that police were looking for Coxum and his missing girlfriend, Elliott testified.

“The body wasn’t even found yet,” De Jong said in court. “These are comments about burying a woman, a woman that mattered.”

The defense attorney challenged Elliott’s credibility, calling the man a convicted drug dealer and violent offender. Snipes said Elliott was willing to lie to police about Coxum’s statements because Elliott’s wife didn’t like Coxum and wouldn’t return home until the defendant was gone.

He argued that Elliott testified he believed Coxum was joking about the missing woman, and that Elliott waited several days before reporting it to authorities. “So, he called police and made up the story,” Snipes told the jury.

De Jong said Elliott hesitated to call police because he couldn’t believe his lifelong friend could be involved in such a crime. Elliot also testified that Coxum told him “that I should do what he did to his girlfriend, I should do (it) to my wife.”

The prosecutor argued that Coxum repeatedly lied to authorities, family and friends looking for Graham in the first few days days after she disappeared. De Jong said Coxum also lied to his father in front of Elliott and his wife. Elliott testified that Coxum told his father he was in Nevada, when he obviously was in North Carolina.

Snipes said his client might have lied to investigators during questioning. “Some people get nervous, they get scared and they don’t always tell the truth to police. Giving a false statement to police doesn’t make you a murderer,” he told the jurors.

The jury of five women and seven men began deliberations Thursday afternoon after hearing about a week’s worth of testimony. The jurors are expected to resume deliberations Friday morning in Stanislaus Superior Court.

This story was originally published February 2, 2017 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Jury to decide fate of man accused of stabbing girlfriend, burying her in shallow grave."