Cosby Case Chronology
Jan. 16, 1997
Ennis Cosby, 27-year-old son of entertainer Bill Cosby, is shot about 1 a.m. as he changes a flat tire on a dark road near Interstate 405 in Sepulveda Pass. Friend Stephanie Crane is present. She says she was waiting for a late date with Cosby and drove there to illuminate the scene after Cosby called her on a cell phone.
March 13, 1997
Police reveal the arrest of Mikail 'Michael' Markhasev, 18. He had been taken into custody the night before at his North Hollywood apartment. Markhasev, who immigrated from Ukraine in 1989, has a juvenile criminal record, attended California schools and worked at Mainly Seconds Pottery Plants & Things, near his home.
March 14, 1997
Prosecutors file murder and attempted robbery charges.
March 28, 1997
Markhasev pleads innocent.
April 11, 1997
Markhasev is indicted by a grand jury on murder and attempted robbery charges. The indictment also alleges the special circumstance of murder during an attempted robbery. The charges supersede those filed previously and send the case to trial without a preliminary hearing. Special circumstances make the death penalty a possibility.
May 13, 1997
Markhasev pleads innocent to the indictment.
May 30, 1997
Prosecutors announce they will not seek the death penalty.
June 1, 1998
Jury selection begins.
June 17, 1998
A jury of six women and six men is selected.
June 22, 1998
Prosecution begins presenting a five-day case that includes an eyewitness who helped create a sketch of the suspect but never identified the defendant, confessional jailhouse letters allegedly written by the defendant, the murder gun linked to the defendant by the DNA of a single minuscule hair, and a witness who said Markhasev searched for the discarded gun and spoke of shooting a black man.
July 1, 1998
Defense begins presenting two-day case, attacking the police investigation, trying to show that a lineup was rigged, suggesting witnesses made up stories to get money from tabloids and saying another man killed Cosby.
July 6, 1998
Jury begins deliberating.
July 7, 1998
Jury finds Markhasev, now 19, guilty on all counts after a total of five hours and 45 minutes of deliberations.