Jury finds husband not guilty

Antonio Codey

Local man innocent of attempted murder, kidnapping

Antonio Lavelle Cosey was found not guilty of attempted murder and kidnapping on Tuesday, after spending five months in jail awaiting his trial.

Seward County Attorney Don Scott said what probably made the difference to the not-guilty verdict was Rella Rodriguez's decision to not see a doctor after she was allegedly nearly strangled by Cosey. Cosey was also alleged to have forced his wife and her daughter into a car.

"That's the (judicial) system," Scott said. “We present the evidence to the jury, then they make a decision."

Cosey's attorney Razmi Tahirkheli agreed not going to the doctor hurt the state's case.

“With a serious allegation like attempted murder, I think you need to back it up with medical evidence,”said Tahirkheli. “Otherwise, it is people just making guesses at the (severity of the injuries).”

Tahirkheli clarified that he thought that the police did its job; he never thought otherwise.

"The police did its job, and we did our job,” said Tahirkheli. “I don't think it was a question of whether somebody didn't do their job, it’s more that there was nothing there.”

Scott echoed Tahirkheli's sentiment.

"We try them, and we have what we have from the police and put it (the case) on and the jury makes the decision,” said Scott.

Tahirkheli, and his associate, Daniel Schowengerdt, explained the history of the case against Cosey and the reason he stayed in jail nearly a half year.

Schowengerdt said it took a month for Cosey to see his preliminary hearing because of the backed up court system, a common problem in Seward County.

"At the preliminary hearing, at the very beginning, the attempted murder charges were dismissed, and (the charges was lowered to aggravated battery,” said Schowengerdt reguarding when he was handling the case. Schowengerdt said that after the charges were lowered the defense presented a motion to get the charges lowered from aggravated battery to battery, but instead he said that the charges were raised to attempted murder.

From the preliminary hearing, attorney’s have 90 days to take the case to trial. Tahirkheli explained that after the charges were re-filed, more charges were added. The charges were first degree attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping, and kidnapping, and domestic battery.

“When (the case) went to the jury, those were the charges, attempted first degree murder, kidnapping, Judge (Kim R.) Schroeder dropped it down from aggravated kidnapping to (two counts) of simple kidnapping and domestic battery.”

Tahirkheli also said that the charges the jury had to consider were changed for jury deliberation.

For the full story, see Friday's edition of The Southwest Times.

© 2008 Southwest Times