Testimony Ends in Cosby Murder Case

With Mikail Markhasev’s mother trying to provide an alibi for her son on the morning Ennis Cosby was killed, testimony in the three-week trial came to an end Thursday.

Starting Monday, defense lawyers and Deputy Dist. Atty. Anne Ingalls will sum up their cases, and the jury will begin deliberating the fate of the man accused of killing the son of entertainer Bill Cosby last year.

The defense case ended with a series of witnesses who either contradicted one another, themselves or witnesses who testified earlier in the trial.

It was the defense’s last chance to keep its promise to the jury that it would show that Markhasev wasn’t anywhere near the crime scene when Cosby was killed about 1:15 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1997, while changing a flat tire on Skirball Center Drive.

Victoria Markhasev, who emigrated to the United States from Ukraine in 1989, spoke in a thick accent as she told defense lawyer Henry J. Hall how she and Mikail spent the evening of Jan. 15 and the early hours of Jan. 16 moving from Encino to North Hollywood.

But Ingalls delivered a damaging blow to that alibi.

In short but sharp cross-examination, Ingalls confronted her with an interview Victoria Markhasev had with a detective last year.

In that interview, she said her son left her house with friends at 8 p.m. on Jan. 15, and she didn’t see him again until about 9:45 a.m. the next morning.

Her only explanation for the interview: “Well, I’m not sure if it’s exactly the correct thing.”

Her testimony directly contradicted two prosecution witnesses. One of them, Gabe Drapel, who lives about a mile from the crime scene, said last week that Markhasev and two friends--Eli Zakaria and Sara Ann Peters--were at his house until 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 16. The second, Itzhak Ben Senior, said the three appeared at his house about 2 a.m. and spent the rest of the night there.

Victoria Markhasev’s testimony also contradicted that of another defense witness, Kathleen Bias, 38, of Los Alamitos. Bias testified Thursday that she briefly saw Markhasev in a car with Zakaria and Peters about 9 p.m. in front of her house, which was more than an hour from Markhasev’s home in Encino.

Hall apparently called Bias in an attempt to buttress his contention that Zakaria--not Markhasev--is the real killer.

Bias said Zakaria came back to her home about 2 a.m. banging on her door. She said she didn’t let him in. She said she knew it was him because she recognized his voice and his car.

The next afternoon, Markhasev and Zakaria came back to her house. Zakaria appeared frantic and wore no shoes or shirt, Bias said, while Markhasev was acting normal.

On cross-examination, Ingalls surprised the defense when she confronted Bias with a contract with a tabloid and a letter showing that Bias tried to sell her story to help Markhasev to earn $5,000.

But Bias said the tabloid turned her down because she could not say that Zakaria admitted to the killing.

The defense made an attempt to discredit the most damaging evidence against Markhasev: a series of jailhouse letters introduced last week in which the defendant appears to virtually admit to the shooting.

Inna Spiegel, Markhasev’s second cousin, said the handwriting in those letters looked nothing like his writing in cards and letters that she has received from him over the years.

But Ingalls again surprised the defense by producing blown-up photographs of the walls of Markhasev’s holding cell showing graffiti-like gang scrawls.

They were signed “PWee,” Markhasev’s gang name, and the same name that appeared on the jailhouse letters.