Driver convicted in crash that killed Smyrna officer

After hearing the facts about a car crash that killed a Smyrna Police Department officer, a Cobb County jury has convicted Robert Lorenzo Cox of vehicular homicide and several other charges related.  

Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady announced that Cox, 38, of Buford, was found guilty of first degree vehicular homicide, failure to yield, driving with an open container, and tampering with evidence related to the April 2020 crash which killed Officer Christopher Ewing who was working traffic enforcement at the time of his death.

According to investigators, Ewing was pulling over a speeding car on South Cobb Drive near Oak Drive when Cox’s Chevrolet Tahoe failed to yield and made a left turn in front of his police cruiser, which resulted in the two cars colliding. First responders extracted Ewing from his vehicle, but he died from his injuries.

According to Cox’s arrest warrant, state troopers who interviewed him observed that he was “unsteady on his feet, his eyes were very watery in appearance, and he slurred his speech.” 

The DA’s office said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined from a blood sample that Cox was under the influence of alcohol. During Cox’s trial,  jurors heard testimony from witnesses and state troopers.

They also watched footage from Ewing’s dash camera and a nearby gas station surveillance camera. The jury convicted Cox on four of five charges after deliberating for nearly two days. Cobb Superior Court Judge Julie Adams Jacobs presided over the trial and will sentence Cox next month. Cox had been out on bond but was taken into custody after the verdict. 

At the time of his death, Air Force veteran Ewing had been with the police department for two years. Gov. Brian Kemp, hundreds of police officers from across the metro Atlanta area, and others attended his funeral which was held at Trusit Park.