A 20-year-old man faces an automatic life-in-prison sentence after a Hamilton County Criminal Court found him guilty Monday morning of the fatal shooting of a North Hawthorne man almost three years ago.
Ronald Cosper was also convicted of attempted especially aggravated robbery and other charges, and will be sentenced on those later by Judge Barry Steelman.
Cosper was charged with the July 2, 2012, fatal shooting of 39-year-old Steve “Weed Man” Mosley during a failed drug robbery.
He faces multiple charges, including felony murder, criminal trespass, aggravated criminal trespass, attempted especially aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery.
According to star witness Dustin Hayes – who said he served as the getaway driver – he used his grandmother’s 1991 white Buick to transport Cosper to Mosley’s neighborhood. Also in the car, he said, was the third member of the trio: co-defendant Devante Stoudemire, whose case remains pending.
Cosper got out of the car, which was parked on Sheraton Street, and began walking toward Mosley’s home on North Hawthorne, according to Hayes’ testimony.
Sitting in the car, he said, he heard three loud pops he “hoped was firecrackers.” Hayes said Cosper then ran back to the car and got in, saying that the robbery had gone wrong and he had fired three shots at Mosley.
Defense attorney Andrew Basler attacked Hayes’ veracity, noting prosecutors dismissed the charges of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery against him in return for his testimony. Under that “sweetheart deal,” the lawyer said, Hayes was allowed to plead guilty to facilitation to commit aggravated robbery.
Judge Barry Steelman, however, denied Basler’s motion for a directed acquittal, saying that Hayes’ testimony was far from the only evidence against Cosper and the case should be decided by a jury.