No Charges Filed Against Man Who Killed Two

Prosecutors declined to file charges Tuesday against a man arrested in a double homicide, saying it appears that the man acted in self-defense.

Several relatives of the victims screamed when a deputy marshal announced in court the district attorney’s decision not to file charges against Roy N. Cowan, a 34-year-old illegal immigrant from Jamaica. About a dozen people had waited two hours for Cowan’s scheduled arraignment.

“It appears that he was defending himself,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Carpenter, who reviewed the case.

Investigators speculate that Roberto Manuel McAllister, 30, and Marvin Earl Cottingham, 29, both of San Diego, broke into Cowan’s apartment on 53rd Street near El Cajon Boulevard last Thursday night.

“He said that they broke in, and they put a gun to his head and tried to get his dope,” Carpenter said, noting that the evidence indicates that Cowan was selling Jamaican marijuana.

Cowan told police that he was pistol-whipped and strangled before he got control of a gun belonging to one of the assailants, which he used to kill both men.

Carpenter said Cowan’s statements, the injuries on his body and the evidence collected at the scene corroborated one another.

The SWAT team took Cowan into custody Friday. After neighbors heard gunshots, he had been seen jumping from the window of his apartment.