Lawyers: Cosby Killer Still Free

In their opening statements Monday, attorneys for the man accused of killing the son of comedian Bill Cosby said the real killer is still on the loose.

It was 18 months ago that Ennis Cosby was shot once in the head after he pulled off the San Diego freeway to change a flat tire.

Jurors in the murder trial of Mikhail Markhasev, the 19-year-old Ukrainian immigrant accused of killing Cosby's only son, heard two versions of what happened on a chilly January morning in 1997.

One version came from prosecutor Anne Ingalls, who said Markhasev killed the son of America's favorite TV dad in an aborted roadside robbery during a violent bid for drug money. She told jurors that Markhasev admitted his crime in letters he wrote from his jail cell.

The other version came from public defenders, who said Markhasev was at home during the murder and that the likely killer was Eli Zakaria, a cohort with Markhasev that night.

The prosecution's first witness, a Los Angeles police detective, showed jurors copies of incriminating letters that Markhasev allegedly wrote from his jail cell. One read, "I went out to rob a connection and obviously, found something else."

Defense attorneys Henry Hall and Harriet Hawkins suggested that the letters were forgeries designed by gang members to shift blame for the killing to Markhasev.

Hall showed jurors a police composite sketch of the killer, then placed it beside a picture of Zakaria that bore striking similarities. Prosecutors say the drawing is an even closer match to Markhasev's face.

Hall suggested that Zakaria was a former friend of Markhasev's who ratted him out to save himself.

Cosby himself was not at the Santa Monica courthouse for the first day of trial. A number of his friends, including the Cosby family photographer, came in his place.