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The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Murder of Stanley Cohen IX: The Trial of Joyce Cohen
Could a single phone call unravel an alibi? We bring you the tangled and suspense-filled story of Joyce Cohen, accused of arranging the murder of her husband, Stanley Cohen. As prosecutors race against the clock, they attempt to pin down evidence linking Joyce to the crime, grappling with timelines and phone records that may either support her narrative or expose a deadly deceit. With Special Agent Steve Emerson by their side, the prosecution delves into early morning calls that could prove to be a critical flaw in Joyce's carefully constructed timeline.
Meet the relentless John Castronakis, who finds himself at the mercy of elusive telecom records as he seeks the missing piece to convict Joyce. Just when hope seems to be slipping away, a fortuitous meeting with Charlotte Miller introduces Bernard A-House, a witness who might hold the key to the trial's outcome. Castronakis is on edge, knowing that A-House's testimony could tilt the scales either way. This episode captures the raw anticipation and mounting pressure as the trial date looms ever closer.
Step into the courtroom drama where emotions run high, and legal strategies clash. Joyce Cohen, under the scrutiny of media and public alike, transforms from a seemingly ordinary housewife into a composed defendant. Experience the intense courtroom exchanges, the scrutiny of testimonies, and Joyce's poignant account of her troubled marriage. As defense attorneys argue police misconduct and challenge witness credibility, the trial of Joyce Cohen becomes a gripping spectacle, leaving us questioning the fine line between guilt and innocence.
Host: Clint McNear and Tyler Owen discussing topics, issues, and stories within the...
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Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is part 9 of the Murder of Stanley Cohen. Let's begin as Joyce Cohen's trial approached. The prosecutors gave themselves no better than a 50-50 shot at convicting her. But that was so right with Kevin DeGregory, because he liked being the underdog. It kept him from losing his competitive edge. What evaded him to keep plugging along? He hated overconfidence and he urged John Kostromax to train physically for the long ordeal ahead. He knew that they would be tired and they would be overworked and he feared they might get sick.
Speaker 1:But they had made substantial progress in rounding up witnesses, with the help of Special Agent Steve Emerson, who had managed to find Frank Wheatley, and they had finally found a way to use the physical evidence to convict Joyce. They had worked out a scenario that placed the murder weapon in her hand on the morning of March 7. Although the physical evidence had been available to Ross all along, the prosecutors guessed he had not yet figured out their plan. So far, they thought they have succeeded in keeping Ross's attention focused on the informant Frank Zuccarello, hoping that he would not realize how important the physical evidence was to the state's case. Zuccarello's insistence that the murder was committed between 2 and 3 am was still troubling. If he was telling the truth, what was Joyce Cohen doing for two or three hours from the time Stan was killed until she called 911 at 525 am? Was she coked up in a daze all the time? Was she asleep? Was she staging evidence at the murder scene? Throwing a rock through the kitchen door to fake a break-in? Flushing coke down the toilet? Anything they could think of would have taken only a few minutes, not hours. Anything they could think of would have taken only a few minutes, not hours. Then there were those late-night phone calls from Joyce's friends in Colorado at exactly the time that she said she was shot and her husband was shot Right from the last of the hour. There was something fishy about those calls.
Speaker 1:The prosecutors have subpoenaed phone records from the Carroll's Dominium and steamboat springs as well as the cohen's house in coconut grove. They found calls to joyce from the carrolls at 5, 18 and 5 20 am, presumably from kathy dickett and kimberly carroll. Then at 5 25 there was a call from the Carrolls to the Metro-Dade Police Department. At the same time Joyce called 911 in Miami, but there was another call at 527 from the Carrolls to Joyce. Collect. The Cohen's phone records show that the charge was accepted and that the call lasted about two minutes. Neither Kimberly nor Joyce had mentioned it in their statements.
Speaker 1:Why, john Kostranakis wondered would someone place a collect call during such emergency? Were all those calls just coincidence or had they somehow been prearranged? Pursuing that line of thought, kostranakis had worked out another scenario. Kathy Dickett was Joyce's best friend and streamboat springs. Suppose Joyce had asked Kathy to call her at that hour of the morning and then, by accident or on purpose, kathy had bumped into Jerry and Kimberly Carroll that night and once they arrived at the Carroll's condominium Kathy suggested the impromptu early morning phone call to Joyce in Miami. But why would Joyce want to receive a phone call from anybody that morning? Because she needed it as her alibi. Did Joyce arrange for her friends in Colorado to become unwitting participants in her scheme? He had no proof. But Castronecchi suspected that Joyce had set up her own alibi by asking Kathy to make sure she got a call at a certain time that morning. Then Castronecchi's recent Kathy and Kimberly Carroll make those phone calls.
Speaker 1:Perhaps Joyce thought Kimberly, a Miami attorney's daughter, would be a more believable witness than Kathy If she couldn't have gotten Kimberly to call. Maybe would have done it herself. In her statement Joyce says she told Kimberly Carroll quote I hear a noise. I got to go now, end quote. But when Kimberly called back, joyce was screaming that Stan had been shot. Kimberly apparently believed that someone had broken into the Cohen's house while she was on the phone with Joyce and that Stan was shot. Just before she got Joyce back on the phone in her second call, because Kimberly had been on the phone with Joyce at the crucial time, she could verify that Joyce told her about the break-in and the murder as they were happening, or at least as they seemed to be happening as soon as Stan was dead.
Speaker 1:Castranacki's theory went. Joyce had only to wait for her alibi phone call from Colorado. When the call came she could discover the murder. Raise the 2 and 3 am. Why did the alibi phone call came shortly after 5 am? Have Castronakis found a clue in Joyce's sworn statement to Detective Spear? When Joyce first mentioned the call from Kimberly, carroll Spear had asked her what time it was then and she replied about 3 am.
Speaker 1:Since Joy expected Stan to be killed between 2 and 3 am, kastrinacki's reason that she must have asked Kathy Dickett to arrange the alibi call for 3 am when she could be sure Stan was dead. And the call did come shortly after 3 am, when she could be sure Stan was dead. And the call did come shortly after 3 am, colorado time, but with the two-hour time difference. By then it was just after 5 am in Miami. A failure to communicate. Castranakis thought it was like a bad joke. Joyce had told Kathy call me at 3 am, but she didn't say whose time hers in Miami or Kathy's in Colorado.
Speaker 1:But if Krastinacki's scenario was right, two questions remain. What was Joyce doing alone in the house with her husband's corpse for two or three hours while she waited for that alibi phone call from Colorado? And what would she have done if the call had never come? Although Castranakis had no evidence that Kathy Dickett knew about Joyce's plan to murder her husband, he did have lots of questions for her and tried to subpoena her again, but it was too late. She was the one witness even Special Agent Steve Emerson couldn't get. She had moved to Australia, far beyond the reach of the state of Florida. So what they still lacked DeRogorio Castronakis agreed Was the final indisputable link tying Joyce Cohen to her husband's murder, something tangible, something from an independent source, something that even Alan Ross couldn't explain away.
Speaker 1:So one week before trial, john Kastrinakis was working late poring over stacks of telecom records, again still trying to match up even one call between Joyce Cohen and her hired killers. And he knew that Joyce had hired the men who murdered her husband. But the volumes of Southern Belle prints out refused to yield that tangible link he so desperately sought. So he turned the problem over in his mind for the thousandth time and for the thousandth time he thought about Stanley Cohen. Sometimes he almost felt he could communicate with the dead man, the man whose life and death had been his preoccupation for nearly two years. But he just can't find the link. And he sometimes would say out loud help me, stanley, give me something, show me something. And Castronakis waited, feeling foolish. He didn't really believe the murder man could somehow help him. Maybe he had been working on the case too long. So at this point he's frustrated, he's angry, depressed.
Speaker 1:And Castranakis drove home slowly that night and it was around 10 pm. He arrived at his suburban Coral Gables home and he saw a car in his driveway and he realized that it was the realtor friend of his wife, charlotte Miller, no doubt trying to interest his wife in a new house. And he thought well, it's bad timing, because the last thing that he cared about was house hunting because the Cohen trial was only one week away. So Castronakis walked into the house, kissed his wife, greeted Charlotte with a tired wave and Charlotte asked oh John, were you still at work? What are you working on so late? And he said oh yeah, the Cohen trial. It starts next week. And he said oh, I heard about that. You know, we lived right down the street when Stan Cohen was killed. You know, we lived right down the street when Stan Cohen was killed.
Speaker 1:And Kastanowski said oh yeah, in that whole neighborhood no one heard any shots that night. But then Charlotte said well, that's funny because I knew one person who heard something that night. And he said oh yeah, he said who. He said well, we had a guest. He told my husband that he heard something that night. And he said oh yeah, he said who. He said well, we had a guest. He told my husband that he heard something that night. I think he said it was gunshots and Kwasi Naki's heart began to pound and he said who was it? Where is he now, do you know? And he said. She said his name is A-House. Call my husband and he will tell you about him.
Speaker 1:So Kastronacki went to bed that night but sleep wouldn't come. So Charlotte had given him Bernard A-House's New York phone number and she suggested to call him early in the morning. And what Kastronakis hoped, of course, was that A-House would recall hearing exactly four shots between 2 and 3 am, in line with Zuccarello's story about the time Stan Cohen was shot. But what if he had heard nothing, or two shots, or six shots, any number but four? Then he would be useless. And what if a house had heard four shots at 5.20 am, the time Joyce Cohen claimed her husband had been shot? Of course Kwasiakis would have to notify Alan Ross about a witness favorable to the defense. So he was lying awake in the dark and he understood that what he was about to do could make or break the state's case against Joyce Cohen. He knew he would have to take the chance. He had to talk to the only witness who might have heard gunshots ring out the night and he could not tell Kevin DiGregorio until it was over. It was still very dark.
Speaker 1:At six o'clock the next morning when Castranakis called Bernie A House from his kitchen phone. His hand trembled as he waited for the answer and finally he was talking to A House yes, a House had been staying with his friend Frank Miller and his Coconut Grove condominium on the night of March 6, 1986, and he left Miami early the next day. And yes, he remembered the night and he remembered hearing something unusual. So Castanaki cleared his throat and said Mr A-House, please tell me what you heard. And he said well, I remember I was asleep. I was asleep. And Kastanakis said thank you, sir. And he said someone will be in touch with you later. So John Kastanakis hung the phone up gently, he sat down at the kitchen table, he dropped his head in his hands and he started sobbing. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:The Joyce Cohen case was set for trial on October 10, 1989, more than three and a half years after Stan Cohen's murder. Co-defendants Tommy Lombardi and Anthony Cavasiolo would be tried later. The case had been reassigned from Judge Tom Carney to Judge Frederica G Smith, who would preside in courtroom 4-2. Judge Smith had a well-earned reputation as an intelligent, conscientious, thoughtful jurist. Intelligent, conscientious, thoughtful jurist. She was also said to be a fervent feminist. In one story that made the rounds, she allegedly called a male prosecutor up to the bench and admonished him for calling her man. The meaning she said refer to me as your honor or judge, not man. When the story was repeated to judge sm, she left, but she didn't deny it.
Speaker 1:Judge Smith's courtroom was a large, high-ceiling, echoing chamber with poor lightning and shabby decor. Everything seemed to be in shades of beige, brown and mustard. Above the judge's bench was the carved and gilded motto we who labor here seek only truth. The courtroom seated about 40 spectators in worn theater-style armchairs bolted to the floor. The first two rows on the right side were reserved for press. Since Florida allows television cameras in its courtrooms, a pool camera was set up next to the jury box. The Joyce Gorm trial would become a long-running nightly miniseries on Miami television stations.
Speaker 1:To the left of the judge's bench was her private door leading to her chambers. To the right, the back door that led to a small holding cell. There incarcerated defendants were held until they were admitted to the courtroom. That small cell was the first one a defendant would see after a guilted verdict. Joyce had never seen the holding cell. Free on bond, she entered and left the courtroom along with her lawyers and the spectators and witnesses through the front door, october 10, dawn sunny, humid and warm Miami autumn. By 8.30 am the steamy sidewalks were already crowded, dotted here and there with umbrellas raised against the sun Caribbean style.
Speaker 1:Promptly, at 9 am, the curious few assembled in courtroom 42 got their first close look at Joyce LeMay Cohen, the diminutive star of the six-week spectacle that was about to unfold. The woman who strode confidently into the courtroom was not the same dowdy housewife who was arrested in Virginia. Joyce had lost weight and pulled herself together for her ordeal. She was noticeable short, barely five feet tall, even in the high heel black pumps she wore. Her thick shoulder length dark hair, now dyed to cover the gray, was pulled back neatly at the nape of her neck with a black silk bow. She wore little makeup, only clear nail polish, and no jewelry except plain gold clip earrings In black framed glasses and a long-sleeved silk dress in a conservative plaid. Joyce looked exactly like what she might have been a well-heeled, respectable young matron who shopped in expensive boutiques in the Grove or an actress in a sub-opera.
Speaker 1:Flanking Joyce were her attorneys, alan Ross, wearing perfectly tailored dark suit and red tie, and his young partner, robert Amso, whose long dark hair curled slightly over the back of his shirt collar and with Joyce in the middle. The three took their seats at the defense council table just in front of the rail and facing the empty jury box. Now, three feet behind Joyce, close enough to touch her if they cared to, sat Gary Cohan and Jerry Cohan-Haffman. Gary dressed like the successful young attorney. He was in a neat suit, white shirt and tie, and Jerry, now weekend news anchor for Channel 4, the local NBC affiliate, wore a casual denim dress and sandals. Her face, so familiar from the news desk, was prettier, softer in person than on television, but beneath her calm features was turmoil.
Speaker 1:After more than three and a half years, the end of her long quest was in sight. But what would be the outcome? She wondered nervously. Would her father's killer go to prison or walk out of the courtroom? A free and rich woman? The years since her father's death had brought some happiness to Gary and Jerry. Gary had married Carol Norris, his date, at Jerry's bridal shower and they had a ninth-month-old son, anthony. Jerry and her husband Steve also had a son, four-month-old Douglas. Brother and sister spoke together quietly. Neither even glanced at their stepmother about to go on trial for her life for the contract murder of their father.
Speaker 1:Next, the three young prosecutors fall into the courtroom Kevin D Gregory, looking fit and composed. John Kastrenakis, smiling, self-assured. And Paul Melvinson, tall, studious, looking in his dark rimmed glasses, a specialist in legal research and procedure. And Paul Melvinson, told studios, looking in his dark-rimmed glasses, a specialist in legal research and procedure, unknown from the legal department of the state attorney's office. Melvinson was a top appellate lawyer. If the state got a conviction it would be his job to hang on to it on appeal. And the young bailiff, alice Bosque, said the famous words arise and announced the arrival of presiding judge Frederica Smith. The judge, a woman not much older than Joyce, had the same small stature. Her short cropped, graying dark hair framed her elegant, expressive face and emphasized her large, intelligent eyes. A bright red dress collar stood up just past the neck of her somber black robe. Seated at the massive judicial bench in courtroom 4-2, judge Smith looked poised and prepared.
Speaker 1:The battle for Joyce Cohan's life had begun. The first task was selecting a jury of 12 citizens capable of voting for the penalty. The jury was convicted. The process of finding prospective jurors about their attitudes toward the death penalty is called death qualifying the jury a macabre term for an emotionally wrenching process. A panel of 20 prospective jurors was led into the jury box, a random selection of Miami citizens, men and women, black, white, hispanic, in nearly equal proportions. They were dressed in a variety of styles short-sleeved guayabera shirts worn outside the pants, cuban style blouses, skirts, low-heeled shoes and an occasional jacket and tie. Judge Smith welcomed the panel. The Kevin DeGrigori Rose faced the panel and briefly summarized the charges against Joyce Cohen contract murder, conspiracy to commit murder and display of a firearm during the commission of a felony. A few jurors exchanged glances Upstairs in the jury pool room where hundreds of prospective jurors awaited assignment.
Speaker 1:There have been talk. If you're sent to courtroom 4-2, they would say, is that the case that murder trial? So DeGregory began and said ladies and gentlemen, look at this defendant, joyce LeMay Cohen. And he strode toward Joyce and pointed directly at her impassive face. She didn't flinch. He said can you assure the state of Florida that if I prove my case against her and you find her guilty of first degree murder, that you could vote for the death penalty for this defendant? Several jurors shifted in their seats, some looked away. Just go and watch them from behind her glasses, without expression. Her face was a mask or a shield Juror in seat number four, ms Weaver.
Speaker 1:Ms Weaver looked down at her lap and shook her head. Ms Weaver, could you vote for the death penalty for this defendant if the law required it? She said no. No, I couldn't vote the death penalty, not for her, not for anyone. Ms Weaver was excused, but at the end of six long days, after questioning 100 prospective jurors, the prosecutors and defense attorneys agree upon 12 jurors and four alternates who stated that they could indeed look at Joyce Cohen and promise to vote for either death in the electric chair or life in prison, depending upon the requirements of Florida law. Allen Ross makes sure that they also promise. Mrs Cohen, I absolutely presume you're innocent. He hoped it was more than an empty exercise.
Speaker 1:Eight men and four women made up the jury. Attorneys on both sides were satisfied. It looked like a smart jury a teacher, a school administrator, a production supervisor, a former air traffic controller, an insurance executive, a health co -worker. Ross was particularly pleased with juror number 11, dr Catherine Poole, a videologist for two years and presently professor and chairman of the radiology department at the University of Miami Medical School. Ross picked Dr Poole as a natural leader. There's our jury for a person. He thought he was certain Dr Poole would be impressed with expert forensic pathologist from New York, dr Michael Bannon, and he hoped she would find Dr Whitley's work slipshod. And they swore in unison do you solemnly swear that you're qualified to serve as jurors in this cause and will render a true verdict in this case? So help you, god.
Speaker 1:And now it was Judge Kostronacki's turn and he gave the opening statement for the state of Florida and he started. This case is foremost about money. It's also about hatred and about drug abuse, extramarital affairs, a failed marriage and, ultimately, murder. He recited a tale already well told in the news media, that of a sexy young wife who tired of her older husband, who had a boyfriend in the grove and a heavy cocaine habit that required lots of cash, who wanted to be rid of her husband without giving up any of his money in divorce, who hired the three men who killed her husband as he slept in his own bed, he said. Later that morning he continued Joyce went to the police station and gave a statement under oath.
Speaker 1:She lied to them, but she didn't anticipate the witnesses and the physical evidence the cops would find. That evidence would show you that Sam Cohan had been dead for hours by the time she called for help. Kastranakis told the jury and she used that time to manipulate the crime scene to create a false burglary. Then Castranakis dropped his bombshell. Evidence never before made public showed that Joyce Cohen's hands were covered with gunshot residue on the morning of the murder, that the murder gun found in the Cohen's front yard had been wiped clean of fingerprints but two tiny pieces of tissue still clung to the gun butt. And that the same time of tissue was found where it had been hidden in Joy Cohen's private bathroom on the other side of the house from the bedroom where her husband was murdered. There was more On that hidden tissue were gunshot residue, traces of makeup and nasal mucus from a person with type B blood Joyce Cohen's blood type type B. Kastronakis hammered out the conclusion Joyce Cohen herself had wiped down the murder weapon with that tissue to remove her higher killer's fingerprints. She threw the gun off the second floor terrace and then hid the soil tissue in her own private bathroom. Joyce Cohen was guilty as sin in her own private bathroom. Joyce Cohen was guilty as sin.
Speaker 1:As Castronakis returned to his seat, the courtroom was dead quiet. Joyce stared straight ahead, face composed, hands folded primly together Like an actor taking the stage. Alan Ross stepped confidently to the podium and he said may it please the court, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have listened to the stage suggestion of what the evidence in this case is going to be. It isn't, in a word a bull, he bellowed the word and it hung in the air. Bull he bellowed the word and it hung in the air. Everyone knew what he had left off at the end.
Speaker 1:Russ described a farce of shot investigation, unreliable evidence and outright lies strung together by investigators for one purpose to nail Joyce Cohan for the contract murder of her husband, even though she had nothing to do with it. While detectives hounded her, he said the real killers got away. He said this murder remains an unsolved crime and at the conclusion of this trial it would still be an unsolved case. Joyce began to weep quietly. She wiped her eyes with a tissue. Russ recounted the events on the morning of the murder.
Speaker 1:Everything started around 5.15 am when Mrs Cohan discovered a break in the kitchen and set off the alarm. As she ran toward the stairs she saw a man dash out of the front door. Upstairs she found her husband in bed, bleeding from the head. Joyce grew more upset as her lawyer spoke, reliving the horror of that morning through his words. She began to sob quietly, her face red and puffy shoulders heaving. Robert Amser, sitting beside her, seemed not to notice. Uniformed officers and paramedics arrived at the Cohem home. The body was still warm. There was no lividity. The paramedics concluded that he was workable, but the cardiac monitor showed a flat line.
Speaker 1:Then, on the very morning of the murder, miami homicide detective John Spear had bluntly accused the new widow murder. Miami homicide detective John Spear had bluntly accused the new widow. He said you murdered your husband, didn't you? And from that moment forward Ross pronounced stentoriously the police were no longer interested in any leads unless they pointed to Joyce Cohen. They followed one lead. We're going to prove. Detective Spear is right. We have deftly supplied his answer to the juror's mental question. Why would the police deliberately pursue the wrong person?
Speaker 1:Nito Castronachis nor Ross mentioned that Joyce had refused the cop's permission to search her house. The jury never knew they had to get a search warrant to finish their investigation. If the jury heard that Kevin DeGregory believed the case would be over in 10 minutes flat, but Judge Smith had ruled that information inadmissible, the accused could not be penalized for exercising her Fourth Amendment right to have the state get a warrant before searching her home. But Ross did tell the jury what he thought about Frank Zuccarello. He was lying. A conniving criminal who made up stories about Joyce called him to cut himself a better deal on his home invasion robberies. Ross gleefully detailed Zuccarello's cozy relationship with the cops and what the police did. For Zuccarello reached an all-time low when they took him to his girlfriend's house and waited outside while he had sex with her.
Speaker 1:In payment for testimony incriminating Joyce Cohen, russ finished on a softer note. He said the state cannot prove its case for one very good reason. Russ finished on a softer note. He said and there will be lots of them I would ask you to return a not guilty verdict for the best reason possible. Joyce Cohen is not guilty, thank you. Russ looked at each juror, one by one, searching their faces, and finally he sat down beside his summing client.
Speaker 1:After a short recess, the prosecutors called the first witness, frank Whitley, the SAC construction project manager Stan Cohen had sent to Steamboat Springs. In his neat dark suit, tie Whitley looked very clean, cut, sounded Southern and he began softly using the city's old town pronunciation instead of Miami. Miami and Steamboat Springs was different from Miami, he told the jurors it had more of a party atmosphere. A party the judge and jury soon learned meant alcohol and drugs. It was at a party in Steamboat Springs that Whitley learned to snort cocaine. He recounted Both Joyce and Stan Cohen snorted coke at those parties, but Stanley was real funny about who he did it in front of, so he would not usually do it with a lot of people around that he wasn't close to. Sometimes Stan wore a chain around his neck Whitley recounted later on cross-examination and on the chain was a bullet, a vial of cocaine that dispensed measured doses. Gary and Jerry, sitting in the gallery of the court, looked at each other in stunned silence. They had never heard this before and they simply could not imagine their gray middle-aged father in the hip colorado party scene sporting a bullet of coke around his neck.
Speaker 1:Soon joyce was doing lots of cocaine, especially when stan wasn't around, according to whitley testimony, and de gregory asked where did she get the coke? And? And he said sometimes Stanley would have some and she would get it out of his drawer and bring it. Then. Other times she would have her own that she had gotten from other places. Sometimes it came through the mail to her from a friend in Miami. Finally, stan had tried to make her cut down and he said she told me that Stanley was watching her how she spent her money and that she didn't want him to know that she was buying cocaine with it. And Willie also said on one particular occasion she had gone out and bought a sweater that cost a little over $100, or told Stanley that she had had and that's why she had spent the money. She had actually bought a gram of cocaine with it. So Gregory asked did she ever tell you about a time when she took cocaine from Stan without his knowing it? And Whitley replied yes. She told me that she got it out of the drawer and that she would have to replace it. And I was supposed to get some to replace it with and I wasn't able to. So she had put some baking soda or something back in to replace the quantity taken out.
Speaker 1:Prosecutor DeGregory led Wheatley deeper into the Cohens' private lives. The jury was wrapped. Whitley said that as he and Joyce partied together more and more while Stan was back in Miami, she began to confide in him about her marriage. She was frustrated and bored with Stan. He was too old for her. She wanted to party, but Stan just wanted to go to bed early At a party at the Cohen's one night. Whitley continued. Stan was obviously tiring while Joyce was still going strong. She was afraid that her friends would notice her husband's demeanor and leave. So she crushed up a Valium and put it in his drink. If he would go to sleep, you know, then we could stay there and party At the defense table. Joyce Cohen made furious notes on a yellow legal pad. Her grip on the pen tightened, her knuckles white and straining. Bold, sharp strokes bit into the paper. Her lips pressed together with a tight line.
Speaker 1:With the valiant episode still lingering in the air, dick Gregory moved to the heart of Whitley's testimony, a conversation he had with Joyce in October or November 1984. She said to me one night when we were talking, she said she wished she knew somebody, that she could have killed him or had the nerve to do it herself. And so DeGregory asked his witness when you heard her statement, what was your reaction? And he said I laughed because I didn't think it was anything serious. And de gregory asked did there come a time when you change your mind? And ross was ready for that one, he leaped to his feet objecting. The objection was sustained, but the inference was inescapable. After Stan Cohen's murder, wheatley thought back on that conversation and then he took it very seriously. The state continued its parade of witnesses, one by one. They supplied pieces of the case against Joyce Cohen, just as Kastraneski has outlined it to the jury.
Speaker 1:Miami homicide detective Sergeant Luis Albuin described the crime scene on the morning of the murder. He saw Stan Cohen's body lying on the floor next to the bed where paramedics had left him. There was lividity, a light purplish color, near the right armpit and on the right side of the body. March 7, that he was working at his desk before an open window from 3.30 am to 5.30 am the window faced the Cohen's house. It was dead quiet, he recalled, until he heard a noise from across the street. It was a sharp, loud noise. Then tinkling less. At first he thought it might have been a shot, but he changed his mind. He was more like slamming a door very, very hard, followed by glass breaking. He didn't look at a clock but he thought it was around 5 am. About five minutes later a burglar alarm went off and he heard nothing else.
Speaker 1:Miami police officer Edward Golden told the jury about finding the metal weapon the Smith Wesson .38, near the front door of the Cohen house. Kevin DeGregory handed Officer Golden the gun, its evidence tag still attached, and he asked if this the weapon you found and Golden replied yes. Stan Cohen's gun was admitted into evidence. Id technician Sylvia Romans described the two tiny pieces of white tissue that she found caught at the revolver's grip. No latent prints were recovered from the gun, she testified. Her partner, guillermo Martin, told the jury how he collected swabs from Joyce's hands on the morning of the murder and he says well, I just wish I just watched my hand. She had told him he saw no blood on her hands or
Speaker 1:clothes. Then Katie Moser took the stand. She looked neat, well-groomed, conservative in her check jacket, white blouse and black skirt and she made an excellent witness. Moser worked for the Steamboat Springs Ski Corporation, had lived in Steamboat for the past 14 years with her husband Bill. The Mosers had met the Cohens about 10 years earlier. She told the jury and they became good friends. And when they met Joyce, cohen was quiet, shy, a nice lady, but over the years Mosers saw her become a coke-snorting party girl who wanted to be the center of attention. Degregory asked Moser, do you see changes in Joyce Cohen's appearance today? And she replied yes, she's now wearing glasses and she was usually wearing contacts and she generally doesn't dress quite that
Speaker 1:matronly. Kathy Moser admitted that she had used cocaine with Joyce at parties a few times. The first was Christmas 1984, but a year later Moser and her husband were worried that Joyce's drug use had gotten out of hand. There were rumors Joyce was crossing a stair around town, moser recalled, and she and her husband tried to talk to Joyce about their concerns. But she told them mind your own business. Moser said she had talked with Joyce once more in the February 1986, right before Joyce returned to Miami for Jerry Cohen's bride was showered and the Cohen's marriage was horrendous. Joyce told her friend that she wanted out that she was furious with Stan about his affair with an old flame in Miami. So DeGregory asked what was the name of the old flame and Moser said Carol Hughes, miami homicide
Speaker 1:detective. Lieutenant Edward Carberry took the stand to identify the sworn statement Joyce Cohen gave on the day of the murder. While the jurors follow along on their copies, degregory and Carberry read the questions and answers aloud. Joyce described an ordinary evening at home until nearly midnight when she heard a noise in the backyard. Stan took his gun out of the drawer, where it was usually kept, she said, and they were outside to investigate, finding nothing. They went back upstairs for their night and where was the gun of that time? Detective Spear had asked and Joyce had said he had laid it on the nightstand and I had picked it up and I said why are you leaving this here? He said leave it here for now. And it was a case then, or in a case
Speaker 1:then. The jurors heard Joyce tell Spear about the phone calls from Colorado and the banging noise that drew her to the kitchen. Then she saw somebody running out of the front door and she dashed up the stairs and found her husband bleeding on the bath. And she says I ran over to him and I said stand. And then I put my hands on his shoulders and it was blood. The phone was right there and I pick it up and I call 911. I said my husband has been shot, please get me some help. And after I saw the blood I ran and got a towel and I tried to stop it. I pulled the covers back and I just kept trying to talk to him and get him to talk to me. I just shook him and kept saying stand, stand. As she listened to her own description of this morning, joyce began to cry again, tears running down her cheeks and streams. She removed her glasses and wiped her face with her bare hands. Her lawyers sitting on at her side seem oblivious. We'll be right back.
