California v. Markhasev
"The Ennis Cosby Murder Trial"
Cosby family to get closure as Markhasev faces sentencing
August 10 (Court TV) --When 19-year-old Mikail Markhasev is sentenced tomorrow for the murder of Ennis Cosby, the Cosby family may finally receive closure to a nightmare that began over a year-and-a-half ago.
Markhasev, a Ukrainian immigrant who had ties to Mexican gangs, will face a mandatory life sentence without parole for his July 7 conviction of Cosby's murder. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty against Markhasev. In addition to first-degree murder, Markhasev also was convicted of attempted robbery and illegal use of a firearm.
Cosby was shot to death as he was changing a flat tire along a Bel-Air road on January 16, 1997. During trial, prosecutor Anne Ingalls relied heavily on incriminating letters written in prison by Markhasev to a friend to prove that he killed Cosby during a botched attempted robbery. In these letters, Markhasev allegedly told his friend that he thought he was robbing a drug deal when he killed Cosby. Ingalls also relied on the testimony of former Markhasev friend Christopher So, who testified that Markhasev told him that he "shot a nigger" and that it was "all over the news." So said that Markhasev made this admission after a failed attempt to find the gun he used to kill Cosby.
Markhasev threw away the gun after Cosby's murder and allegedly recruited So and another friend, Michael Chang, to help him find the weapon. So later helped police find the gun in a field two months after Cosby's murder. (Chang refused to testify at Marhasev's trial.)
However, Henry Hall, Markhasev's attorney, insisted that the police had the wrong man and that Markhasev's friend, Eli Zakaria, was really Cosby's murderer. Hall focused on the fact that the only person who may have seen Cosby's killer, Stephanie Crane, could not identify Markhasev as the possible murderer in a live police lineup or in court. He insisted that the police sketch resembled Zakaria more than Markhasev. In addition, the defense stressed that So's testimony was unreliable because he had everything to gain from Markhasev's conviction: a $100,000 reward from The National Enquirer and possible leniency from prosecutors on other unrelated pending charges against him. (So is a convicted embezzler who is on probation.)
Hall also suggested that the incriminating prison letters allegedly written Markhasev were forged.
When Markhasev was convicted for Cosby's murder, Hall blamed the media for poisoning the jury and convicting his client before he even went to trial. At the sentencing, he is expected to ask for a new trial because of alleged jury and prosecutorial misconduct. In a motion filed on August 7, Hall claimed that prosecutors repeatedly referred to Markhasev's alleged gang affiliations at trial despite a court order that banned such references.
Hall also wrote that one juror indicated that she had determined Markhasev's guilt before final arguments were completed. Another juror, Hall claimed, said that Markhasev should be hung for Cosby's murder before deliberations began. Hall argues that all these factors indicate that the jury was unfairly prejudiced against Markhasev.
One of Cosby's friends, Phil Caputo, and possibly some of Cosby's relatives are expected to give victim impact statements during Markhasev's sentencing. Caputo was with Cosby earlier on the night of his murder.
Bill Cosby was not in court for most of the trial because he said he did not want to interrupt the judicial process. While several of his relatives and friends went to court daily, the former star of the award-winning sitcom, "The Cosby Show," attended only closing arguments. It is not known whether he will attend Markhasev's sentencing or make an impact statement.
-- Bryan Robinson
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