Flushing man faces life sentence for killing mother at her home, prosecutors say

A man was convicted of killing his 71-year-old mother inside their home in Flushing, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton says.

Randall David Cocking, 49, of Flushing, was found guilty as charged of felony murder in the July 6, 2025, death of his mother, Pamela Payne, at her home on Autumn Drive in Flushing and of armed robbery and carjacking, according to prosecutors.

Five days after her death, Payne's family arrived at her home on July 11, 2025, for an open house she was hosting for her granddaughter, and called the police for a welfare check when they didn't get an answer at the door, prosecutors say.

Flushing police entered the home to find Payne dead with evidence showing that she had been fatally beaten inside the home on July 6, prosecutors say.

According to prosecutors, evidence found that Cocking was living with his mother and that her car was missing from the home. Police tracked the vehicle using Flock cameras to the Richfield Township area, where an officer located it at a storage facility, found Cocking inside the car and arrested him, prosecutors say.

Michigan State Police Crime Lab analysis showed that footprints at the scene matched Cocking's boot, which also had his mother's blood on them at the time of the arrest, the prosecutor's office says. Investigators also recovered a blood-stained shirt that Cocking was seen wearing on gas station surveillance video, which carried Payne's DNA, prosecutors say. Payne's purse was later found along River Road, according to the prosecutor's office.

"A grandmother should have been welcoming her family to a celebration that day. Instead, it became a tragic day 
of shock and mourning. We hope this verdict gives Pamela Payne's family some peace, and we will continue to stand with them through sentencing," Leyton said.  

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 16. Cocking faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole, prosecutors say.