By TERENCE CORRIGAN - Special to the T-G
Steven Andrew Lokey, 32, has decided to put his fate in the hands of a jury. Lokey is charged with first degree murder.
Lokey is accused of the killing of 29-year-old Adrienne Cox in the apartment where she lived on Neeley Avenue in Shelbyville on June 19, 2020.
Lokey was in court on Oct. 3, with his attorney Robert Marlow. Lokey engaged in an extensive, animated conversation with Marlow at the defense table but no possibility of a plea agreement was discussed on the record.
Lokey’s trial is set for May 8-12, 2023.
The murder evidence
The state coroner determined that Cox sustained beating wounds to the head, was stabbed in the head and chest and was strangled with an electric cord.
The murder was witnessed by two people, Brianna Stipe and Christopher Gunsell, who is also known by the nickname “Diego.” He is charged in the case with criminal responsibility for 1st degree murder. Stipe was apparently at the time of the murder Lokey’s girlfriend. She has not been charged in this case. She has reportedly been in a drug rehab facility.
According to prosecutor Mike Randles, Stipe will testify in Lokey’s trial and there’s “a possibility” that Gunsell will cooperate with prosecutors and testify as to what he witnessed.
According to Stipe’s testimony in a preliminary hearing on Dec. 20, 2021, Lokey called Gunsell, who lived in Bell Buckle, to the apartment where Cox and Stipe lived the night of Cox’s murder. According to Stipe, Lokey said to Gunsell on the phone “I’m going to need some help burying some bodies.”
The first round of violence that night apparently started when Lokey and Cox got into a fight over a clogged hypodermic needle, Stipe said. Stipe has admitted that she and Cox regularly injected heroin. Lokey’s drug of choice was methamphetamine, according to Stipe.
Stipe reported that during the fight over the clogged needle, Lokey struck Cox and then, after injecting himself with methamphetamine, he became enraged because he believed Cox and Stipe were going to report his acts of violence against Cox to police.
Stipe testified that before the fatal attack began, Lokey went to the kitchen and “brought knives into the bedroom.” Then, according to Stipe, Lokey wrapped a black electrical cord around his wrists and “attacked Cox on the bed” where she and Cox were seated.
Stipe said she sat “frozen in fear” on the bed as Lokey strangled and stabbed Cox first as they struggled on the bed. And then, during the struggle, they fell to the floor. Stipe said she “feared for her life” as Lokey had threatened to “kill” her and Cox.
During the struggle, Christopher Gunsell allegedly stood at the bedroom door watching as Cox was murdered. Gunsell allegedly helped Lokey carry Cox’s lifeless body to the bathroom and put her in the tub. Stipe stated, according to court reports, that Lokey choked Cox again, to “be sure she was dead.”
During the attack, Stipe testified, she mouthed the word “help” to Gunsell and he replied by mouthing that “it’s OK.”
When the attack was over, Lokey, Stipe, and Gunsell fled in Gunsell’s car, she said. From the crime scene, they went to a woman’s home (identified in court as Faith.) The woman agreed to let Lokey use her 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe to go and get her methamphetamine. Lokey, Gunsell and Stipe, however, did not go looking for methamphetamine but instead went to “Diego’s” house, then to a motel in Shelbyville.
Lokey and Stipe were finally captured in Moore County, after stealing another vehicle in Decherd. In that Franklin County auto theft, the vehicle owner was giving Lokey and Stipe a ride to a hotel where they were staying in Monteagle. Witness statements show that during the ride, Lokey grabbed the vehicle owner by the neck and forced her out of the car. Lokey was finally captured in Manchester at 4 a.m. on June 22, two days after Cox was murdered.
Cox’s four sons, ages 4 to 11 at the time of the murder, are being raised by her parents, Charles and Elaine Garber of Pennsylvania. Shania Garber, Cox’s sister, said recently that she and the other family members want the death penalty for Lokey.
According to DA Randles, by state statute, the family is required to give notice of their intent to pursue the death penalty at least 30 days before trial but in practice, that notice is always made much earlier. Randles said during a phone interview last Tuesday that a decision has not been made yet on whether the state will pursue the death penalty in the Lokey case.
