HAMPTON, Va. — The trial date for Cory Bigsby, a Hampton man accused of felony child neglect, is set for three days in November.
During a Tuesday morning hearing, the Hampton Circuit Court scheduled the trial for Nov. 7, 9, and 10. Bigsby's legal team also withdrew his request to be granted bond, after he was denied five previous times.
The trial will be preceded by a motion to suppress evidence hearing on Sept. 20, where the team plans to ask to throw out all of Bigsby's statements made to the Hampton Police Division.
Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell said that prosecutors don't plan to use any of the statements Bigsby made before getting a lawyer.
"But the statements before that, that the Commonwealth said they wouldn’t use, led to the statements after," said Bigsby's Attorney Amina Matheny-Willard. "You know, when you are having a conversation with somebody, you ask follow-up questions.”
Matheny-Willard said Bigsby has lost about 50 pounds in jail.
"I would ask people to consider, how would you feel if you went to the police to get help and you ended up here," Matheny-Willard said.
Court officials are scheduled to meet to discuss pre-trial motions on September 20.
Bigsby first reported his son, Codi, missing on Jan. 31. Since then, police and volunteer organizations have been looking for the 4-year-old, but they haven't been able to find him.
When police officers took him to the station that day, he allegedly told them he left his young children at home alone, sometimes. That's what his initial charges stem from.
Since the beginning of the case, Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot said investigators don't think Codi wandered off, and they don't think he was abducted.
Bigsby was arrested on Feb. 3 after reporting his son missing and spending several days at the police division's headquarters.
He originally faced seven charges of child neglect that were unrelated to the disappearance of Codi, but in July, a grand jury found enough evidence for over 30 charges, including child neglect and endangerment.
On Feb. 14, the Hampton Police Division said an internal audit found that Bigsby's request for a lawyer wasn't honored while police were questioning him.
Prior to the audit, Chief Talbot said Bigsby waived his right to legal counsel while at police headquarters answering questions. The review came after Bigsby's previous lawyer, Jeffery Ambrose, said Bigsby hadn't been allowed access to a lawyer.
Talbot said Bigsby took a polygraph test with a federal agency before his arrest, and a heated exchange followed involving the lead detective on the case.
During the Feb. 1 exchange, Bigsby mentioned legal counsel twice but wasn't given a lawyer until his family hired one, days later.
According to Talbot, Bigsby should have been provided a lawyer once that mention of counsel first happened.