Nine women and five men make up the jury that’s been seated to hear a civil lawsuit stemming from the June 2006 murder of Simone Kim. Jury selection and opening arguments marked the beginning of trial in Juneau Superior Court Tuesday.
Kim was a painter from Anchorage who was working on a construction project to expand Juneau’s Fred Meyer store. As he was talking with two landscapers on the east side of the building, Jason Coday walked up to Kim and shot him several times.
Two days before Kim’s murder, the newly-arrived Coday walked into Rayco Sales, the gun shop on the opposite side of Egan Drive and Old Dairy Road. Coday asked to see some firearms, but apparently said he wanted to think about making a purchase later. While clerks were preoccupied elsewhere in the store, Coday allegedly reached behind the counter and grabbed a Ruger .22 rifle from the gun rack. He left two hundred-dollar bills on the counter and walked out.
“Ray Coxe would be responsible no matter who it was who was shot by Jason Coday with a gun from the shop,” said Jonathon Lowy of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and co-counsel for the Kim family, the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit against Coxe.
During opening arguments, Lowy said store owner Ray Coxe committed over 500 firearms transaction violations. There were also at least 216 firearms that went missing in Coxe’s shop. Lowy suggests those were all guns sold illegally or off the books.
Lowy said an appropriate remedy includes monetary damages of several million dollars for the family of Simone Kim.
“I think you’ll agree that you’ll be privileged to know him,” Lowy said. “He was central to his family. They relied on him. His parents relied on him. He supported them emotionally. He supported them financially. He supported them every way.”
Tony Sholty, one of Coxe’s attorneys, contends that Lowy’s claim of hundreds of firearms transaction violations are distorted and exaggerated. Coxe was singled out because of discrepancies in the Form 4473 that is filled out by firearm purchasers. Sholty said some of those violations occurred because of simple errors, such as customers changing their mind about the zip code or not knowing what to put in the box asking for county of residence.
Sholty also refuted expected testimony from former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms employee Joseph Vince suggesting various scenarios in which Coxe allegedly sold the rifle to Coday.
“In Vince World, Ray Coxe sees this person in the store that he’s never seen before,” Sholty mused. “He agrees to sell this stranger a rifle illegally. And then he has him pay for it by putting $200 down on a gun display case in plain view for anybody to see and, apparently, also in view of this video that must be running.”
Sholty notes that the 82-year-old Coxe has already lost his federal firearms license and no longer sells firearms. But it wasn’t because of criminal activity or illegally selling weapons.
Every licensed firearms dealer has a ledger book that is devoted to tracking firearms by their serial numbers, and it includes dates when each weapon was acquired and disposed. Jurors will likely hear how Coxe’s record-keeping hasn’t been stellar over the last 30 years, but Sholty said it wasn’t because of evil or criminal intent.
An old VHS tape of Bugs Bunny might also be a factor in the case. Coxe had two sets of surveillance recording systems monitoring his store. A clerk will likely admit that he forgot to reset the tape in one system before Coday walked into the store. A pre-recorded tape of cartoons was apparently inserted into a back-up recording system, but it did not record properly because the cassette’s record-enable tab was removed.
The civil trial is expected until the end of next week.
