[MI] Hit man tells how he killed Detroit cop's wife, Rose Cobb

...Cobb was shot four times in the face at close range...

Previous blog entries:

• Dec 28, 2007 - [MI] SGT COBB'S WIFE SHOT DEAD IN PARKING LOT
• Jan 12, 2008 - [MI] Sgt. Cobb not at vigil for his murdered wife, Rose
• Apr 21, 2008 - [MI] Sgt Cobb & hired hitman arrested for murder of Rose Cobb
• Apr 28, 2008 - [MI] Sgt Cobb - arrested in plot that killed his wife Rose, has been released
  

Hit man tells how he killed Detroit cop's wife
Two men face murder trial, but husband accused of hiring them hasn't been charged.
The Detroit News
George Hunter ghunter@detnews.com
May 20, 2008
Self-professed hit man Vincent Smothers described to police the last horrifying seconds of Rose Cobb's life as she sat in the passenger seat of her minivan in the parking lot of an east side drug store. "I broke out the window, and demanded her purse. She was screaming," Smothers said in his April 19 confession, which was read aloud Monday by Detroit Police Investigator Ira Todd during Smothers' preliminary hearing in 36th District Court. "She was afraid. I wanted to take her purse so it wouldn't look like a contract kill, but she was panicking; moving around too much. To keep from any further delay, I shot her in the head," Smothers told police of the Dec. 26 murder. "She fell across the console toward the driver's seat." Cobb was shot four times in the face at close range... Although Smothers' confession was enough for the judge to bind the case over, University of Detroit Mercy Law Professor Larry Dubin said it isn't enough to implicate [Detroit Police Sgt. David] Cobb... Approached at his home last week by Detroit News reporters, Cobb said, "I can't say anything except that there's a side to this that no one in the media has asked me about at all." He declined to elaborate... Sheryl Gary, Rose Cobb's sister, expressed appreciation for Smothers' confession. "I'm glad he had the conscience to come forward," she said. Rose Cobb's niece, Adrian Gary, said she hopes David Cobb "pays for what he did. I hope he gets charged in this, too." After Smothers was arrested in Shelby Township on April 19, police say he confessed to being a hit man who was responsible for 10 murders. Investigators say Smothers also fingered Cobb, 38, for promising to pay him $10,000 from his wife's $200,000 life insurance policy if he killed her. Marzell Black [son of David Cobb's girlfriend] also implicated Cobb in the murder for hire, police said.Earlier Monday, Smothers was bound over by Randon in connection with the June 21, 2007, double slaying of Gaudrielle Webster and Clarence Cherry on the 7000 block of Gravier. Another woman, who survived being shot during the same incident, provided police with a lead to Smothers' arrest... [Full article here]

Alleged hit man will face trial in 3 killings
Shelby Twp. resident says he's a hit man
Detroit Free Press
By Ben Schmitt bcschmitt@freepress.com
and Suzette Hackney
May 20, 2008
...Smothers appeared in 36th District Court on Monday, where Judge Mark Randon bound him over on charges of first-degree murder in three cases. In addition to Rose Cobb's slaying, Smothers is accused in the fatal shootings of Clarence Cherry, 34, and Gaudrielle Webster, 18, on June 21 on Gravier. "I'm angry with him, yes," Sheryl Gary, Rose Cobb's sister, said of Smothers after the three-hour hearing. "But I truly appreciate that he had a measure of conscience enough to admit to what he did. If he had not, we would still be in the dark about what happened to Rose." Marzell Black, 20, of Detroit, who is suspected of setting up the Rose Cobb shooting, also was bound over for trial Monday on a charge of solicitation of murder, a felony punishable by life in prison. He sat next to Smothers during the hearings, but neither man spoke to each other. Black told police that he met David Cobb through his mother, Sheila Black, and Cobb asked him if he would kill his wife, Detroit police Sgt. Michael Russell testified. Black, in a statement that was read by Russell in court, said he couldn't do the killing, but, "I would holler at one of my guys, V," meaning Smothers. A few weeks later, Smothers, David Cobb and Black all met and planned the killing, according to Black's statement... [Full article here]