Lottery Winner Keeps Jackpot

BARTOW | Ida Cody shouldn't see a dime of her estranged husband's nearly $2 million lottery winnings, a jury decided Thursday.

Ida Cody had claimed she gave her husband $20 to purchase the winning ticket on May 5, 2007, from Smith's Grocery and Deli in Lake Hamilton. Her civil lawsuit claimed William Cody agreed to split any winnings with her.

But six Circuit Court jury members, after an hour of deliberation, discounted those claims.

Ida Cody and her lawyer, David Wilson III, declined to comment after the decision.

Lottery winner William Cody, who has not lived with his wife since 1982 and has filed for divorce, said he was pleased with the jury's finding.

"The thing that hurt me the most was the lie," he said of his wife's claim. "I just don't like that."

Wilson and Mark Sessums, William Cody's lawyer, constantly objected to each other's descriptions of the facts to the jury during closing arguments.

Despite living in different houses, the Codys continued to have a cordial relationship and went out socially, including to the dog track, where they would split the winnings. They had nine children together.

William Cody denied borrowing money from his wife and the claim any agreement was in place to split lottery winnings. William Cody testified Tuesday he didn't ask to borrow money from his wife so he could purchase the winning ticket worth $3 million.

He took the jackpot in a lump-sum payment of about $1.9 million.

Wilson asserted that instead of paying his wife part, William Cody turned his back on the woman who stood by him, even when he was sick, despite his abusive, philandering and drunken ways.

Ida Cody was herself living with another man at the time the lottery ticket was purchased and has had children with other men since the separation, Sessums said.

[ Jeremy Maready can be reached at jeremy.maready@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. ]