Cosby Suspect Was in Court Hours Before His Arrest

Hours before Mikail Markhasev was arrested as the suspect in the murder of Ennis Cosby, he had pleaded guilty in an Orange County courtroom to marijuana possession, according to court records and a close friend.

Because of a misplaced or missing license plate, Markhasev, 18, and three friends had been stopped by police shortly before midnight on Feb. 8, as they drove on the quiet residential street in Los Alamitos where Markhasev had lived, according to court records. Police found a small amount of marijuana in Markhasev’s possession, those records show.

Investigators say there is no way police in Los Alamitos could have known he was a suspect in the Cosby murder.

Wednesday, Markhasev pleaded guilty to drug possession charges and paid a $50 fine. Afterward, he visited with a few friends in Los Alamitos, where he had lived for six years, according to his close friend, who asked not to be identified.

The friend said Markhasev took a bus home to North Hollywood. Later that afternoon, he was arrested outside the house he shared with his mother. He was booked on suspicion of killing Cosby on Jan. 16 as Cosby changed a flat tire on his car on a road above Bel-Air.

Markhasev’s friend said the Ukrainian-born immigrant telephoned on Thursday and asked the friend’s mother to tell Markhasev’s mother about the murder arrest. The friend said he and his mother decided not to call Markhasev’s mother.

“How you going to call somebody’s mother and tell them their son is arrested for murder?” he asked. “She knows, no way he did it. Why would he try to take someone’s car when he doesn’t even drive? He didn’t even like guns.”

Markhasev has never had a California driver’s license, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Several other friends said Markhasev had spent a lot of time in Los Alamitos.

“He used to stay at my house all the time,” said Nicholas Batshon, 18, who said he and Markhasev were good friends in the 9th and 10th grades at Los Alamitos High School.

“We were [graffiti] taggers, but we never got in any trouble,” Batshon said. “He didn’t do it.”

Markhasev never knew his own father, who had left him and his mother in the Ukraine, the friend said.

Batshon and others said Markhasev became affiliated with a Los Alamitos gang during his sophomore year. Some remembered two serious fights in which he had been involved in the last two years.

“He was a big guy, he was tough,” said Aaron Riley, 15. “But I kicked back with him at a friend’s house three days before he was arrested. He was joking and laughing, like he didn’t have no worry in the world.”

Los Angeles Police Lt. Anthony Alba said authorities in Orange County would have had no way of knowing that Markhasev was a suspect in the Cosby slaying at the time of the marijuana arrest.

Although LAPD detectives had received a tip about Markhasev’s involvement in January, police said they had a number of leads to investigate, including figuring out who the tipster was, before they put Markhasev under surveillance in March, Alba said.

With the exception of the composite sketch, authorities in other jurisdictions would have had no information to alerted them that Markhasev was a suspect, Alba said.

“We weren’t dealing with physical evidence linking him to the crime,” Alba said.

Times staff writer Matt Lait contributed to this report.