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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 Part X
What if a single piece of testimony could change the course of a trial? Join us as we unravel the gripping courtroom saga of Joyce Cohen, accused of the chilling murder of her husband, Stanley Cohen. The prosecution finds itself on a precarious path, facing the daunting task of proving their case amid wavering testimonies and unreliable witnesses. From the controversial statement recalled by Miami Police Officer Catherine Carter to the unpredictable shift in medical examiner Dr. Charles V. Wetley's opinion, every piece of evidence presents a new challenge. As tensions escalate with compelling cross-examinations and strategic maneuvers, the trial transforms into an unpredictable battle of wits and resilience.
In a high-stakes showdown, defense attorney Ross grapples with mounting pressure as the prosecution, led by Paul Matheson, feels the momentum shifting in their favor. With pivotal testimonies, including that of the elusive Bernard A. House and the star witness Fran Zuccarello, the courtroom atmosphere becomes charged with palpable tension. Frank Socorro's account and solid physical evidence further tighten the noose around the defense, leaving Joyce visibly affected by the proceedings. This episode captures the essence of a legal thriller, where the pursuit of justice hinges on the intricate balance of witness credibility and expert evidence. Tune in for a front-row seat to this enthralling legal drama that challenges the boundaries of truth and persuasion.
I'm your host, kiara, and this is part 12 of the Murder of Stanley Cohen. Let's begin. The first week of the trial ground to a close and so far the evidence seemed to play out just the way the prosecutors had hoped, but they knew the tough witnesses were yet to come. Had hoped, but they knew the tough witnesses were yet to come. Officer Catherine Carter, who belatedly recalled Joyce Cohan's incriminating statement when she said that she heard her say I shouldn't have done it. Frank Zuccarello, a cross-examiner's dream, with his self-serving motive, conflicting stories and violent criminal acts Would the jury believe a man like that? There was more to worry about. Dr Charles Whetley, deputy chief medical examiner, had just dropped a buncho. He had changed his mind. He told DeGregory about the probable time of Stan Cohen's death. For three and a half years Whitley had stuck by his original statement that death could have occurred at any time from midnight to 6 am. But now he believed that the time of death was between 2 and 3 am. Just as Frank Saccarello said. Degregory was elated but he knew Dr Whitley's last-minute switch would infuriate Attorney Ross. And he was right. When he told Defense Attorney Ross about Whitley's new opinion, ross went off like a rocket. D Gregory knew Ross would move heaven and earth to discredit Wesley and keep his new opinion out of evidence.
Speaker 1:It would be up to Dick Gregory to protect Wesley and get his testimony before the jury, and that would not be easy. There was yet another witness whose testimony the jury might find hard to believe Bernard A House. This is the man from New York who had been visiting friends in the Grove and who remember hearing something unusual the night of Stan's murder. Who was he and how accurate could his recollections be after three and a half years? Accurate could his recollections be after three and a half years? Moreover, if his testimony supported the prosecution's case against Joyce, wouldn't it seem a little suspect that he had never come forward earlier, that no one had even heard of his existence until just one week before Joyce's trial? In fact, a-house had refused to come to Miami to testify, so Castanakis and Amso would travel to New York on Saturday, october 28, to videotape his testimony for presentation to a jury that would have every right to be skeptical. In short, the crux of the prosecution's case against Joyce Cohen seemed to rest on the testimony of a police officer with belated recall, a jailhouse rat, a medical examiner who had changed his mind after three years and a mystery man from New York. Three years and a mystery man from New York.
Speaker 1:So now, at 9 am, monday, october 23rd, prosecutor DeGregory called the state's next witness, miami Police Officer, catherine Carter. On the witness stand, carter told her story without embellishment. She had been the first officer to arrive at the Cohen house on March 7, 1986. Then she found Joyce Cohen distraught and hysterical, and upstairs lay the body of Stan Cohen face down on the bed, bleeding from head wounds. Carter said that as she listened to Joyce Cohen's account of the crime that morning, she had been puzzled about why the alarm didn't go off and the Doberman pincher didn't stop the intruders. She had turned off the home's alarm system, mrs Cohen had told Carter so she wouldn't accidentally set it off and awaken her husband, and she kept the Doberman with her. For the same reason.
Speaker 1:The jury was intent, as Mrs Coens had crossed a leg on a cushion, staring off into space. Carter continued. She began to talk as if she were thinking out loud and she said I should not have done it. Carter had heard it clearly. And then, just then, a detective walked up and the phone rang. So now defense attorney Alan Ross.
Speaker 1:Cross-examination lasted nearly an hour. He took Carter back through her own sworn statement about that morning, probing for inconsistencies. Finally he came to the point If Carter had heard Mrs Cohen say I shouldn't have done it, wouldn't it have been important to ask what she meant? Because she never asked Mrs Cohen what it was she shouldn't have done? And attorney Ross demanded incredulously this and Carter. And Carter answered yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 1:And so Ross asked her do you tell anyone, like Sergeant Tom Watterson, who was right there at the scene, or Detective Jim Spear, lead investigator on the case, or or your supervisor, detective O'Connell? And Carter said well, I thought I had told Detective O'Connell. And so Ross asked then why isn't it in your sworn statement to Detective O'Connell? And Alan Ross slammed the statement on the podium and he said read the last question in that statement. And he said read the last question in that statement and it says is there anything else that you can tell us that might assist us in this investigation? And her answer was no. So then she said I told Detective O'Connell what he wanted me to say. He didn't want me to add any information. The explanation sounded weak as she told the jury this and after that Officer Carter was excused. Alan Ross had not Budged her. But what impression had she made on the jury? Would they think she was lying? Would they think she was Honest but careless? It was possible to. It was not possible to read the jurors' faces at that point.
Speaker 1:So then next, joe Crestanakis called Fran Zuccarello, the state star witness, to the stand. Zuccarello was now 25 years old and he still looked young, but he had acquired an air of experience during the three and a half years since his arrest. He looked at Aris as he settled himself in the witness box, and in fact he was. He had already testified against his old pals and several other trials. Zuccarello made a good appearance. Zuccarello made a good appearance With his neatly trimmed dark hair and small mustache. He looked, as one spectator commented, like a waiter in an Italian restaurant. All he needs is the bow tie and a jacket. And indeed he described himself to the jury as a part-time waiter putting himself through business school.
Speaker 1:So John Castronakis led his witness into his dark past. He said that he had been a professional home invasion robber in a gang with pals Anthony Caracciolo, tommy Lamberti and brothers Jay and Scott Ricciardelli. In the first three months of 1986, they have robbed 10 or 11 homes in Dade and Broward counties. To get inside they pose as police officers, mailmen, delivery men. They carry revolvers, serial pneumatic pistols, machine guns. They tie people up and the robberies were always inside jobs. So they asked him why did he do it? And he said man, money got the best of me. I took the easy road. He had already pled guilty to a total of 23 felonies. Zuccarello told the jury he could have pulled 23 life sentences but the state gave him a plea bargain. That was a real bargain. He was sentenced to just five years in prison and he actually served less. Half that time he was already out on parole and he would never be charged in the crime. He was going to tell the jury about the murder of Stanley Cohen.
Speaker 1:Zuccarello launched into his story. He started out as another inside job. He said A home invasion robbery. A dark-haired woman hired the gang to pull on her own home. The victim, gang leader Caracciolo Hato Zuccarello, would be Stanley.
Speaker 1:Then in February 1986, the plan changed to murder. She wanted her husband dead. She didn't love him anymore. She couldn't file for divorce because she wouldn't get anything. So the woman called Caracciolo's apartment several times. She planned to pay them for the job when she got her husband's life insurance money. But Zuccarello got his pay up front from Carasiello $2,500 cash and a black El Camino. He had first seen Joyce Cohen when she drove her white Jaguar to a 7-Eleven store in North Miami Beach to meet Anthony Carasiello. There was a man in the car with her. When she got out of the car she gave Caracciolo a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Zuccarello got a good look at her. Her companion shook Caracciolo's hand. Then he handed Caracciolo a map of the house where the murder would take place, a detailed sketch of the house, the bedroom, the alarm system with panic buttons, even the Coemps' Doberman.
Speaker 1:The murder was supposed to look like a botched burglary, as if Stan had awakened and been shot during the struggle. Zuccarello told the jurors the best time to do it, they decided was from 1 to 3 am. Joyce was supposed to supply Anthony Caracciolo with a gun. When he got to the house Anthony wanted to know about the dog. Is it turnable? Could we handle it or would we have to kill it? And for $155, he said they bought a dart gun to take along in case they had to kill the Doan's, the Cohen's, doberman, pinscher and Castanakis at that point waved a contraption that looked like a large, heavy crossbow which could be armed with a thick steel arrow, and the jury's eyed intently and he asked do you recognize this? And there were several members of the jury that owned dogs. Juror Dr Catherine Poole had a Doverman. So the mental picture of an enormous dog scurrying a dog even a large dog like a Doverman was horrifying. So Socorro said yeah, that's the dark gun. And the dark gun was admitted into evidence. The jurors settled on easily back in their seats.
Speaker 1:On the morning of the murder, march 7, 1986, zuccarello had worn jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt. Tom Lamberti was dressed in black. Anthony Caracciolo had worn fatigues. Each carried a gun in his pants. At around 2 am they drove in the Black El Camino to the Cohen house in Coconut Grove. He recalled the time because he saw it on the digital clock on the dashboard. Joyce Cohen met them at the front door. She let them in and she said Hurry up, get it over with. She was wearing a light color robe and Kostinowski asked can you identify the person here today? And Zuccarello said yes, it's the lady sitting at the table in the black and white. And he pointed straight at Joyce who stared back at him from the defense table. Tommy Lamberti went to the rear of the house with the lady to show her how to fake a break-in.
Speaker 1:Anthony Caracciolo went upstairs, zuccarello said, and he was supposed to stay by the front door. But he got nervous and he said I kept thinking here I am going to do a murder. So he dashed upstairs to see what was going on. He heard a couple of shots, he wasn't sure how many. He saw Caracciolo with the gun in his hand and then they both ran down the stairs, dashed out the front door. Lombardi met them at the car and they drove away. In the car Caracciolo blew up, he said he started yelling at him and he told him that he made him panic. So he thought he missed him one time. So he ran out of the house so quick that he was just running. He was tripping over himself. He doesn't know what he did with the gun. So Joyce glares Zuccarello, frequently shaking her head in disgust, and she scribbled furiously on the legal path she kept before her throughout the trial and she whispered edgily something to her attorney at Allen Ross.
Speaker 1:Three days later, on March 10, zuccarello said they pulled another home invasion robbery and he was arrested. The next day and a few months after his arrest he decided to tell the cops about the Cohen homicide. He identified Joyce Cohen from photographs and he picked out a photo of her companion at the 7-Eleven store. The name on the back of the photo was Lim Barkley. Finally it was Alan Ross's turn to cross-examine Zuccarello. He could hardly wait to get started. So he began by hammering away at Zuccarello's career as a violent home invasion robber and his use of cocaine. But soon his zero end on his major attack Zuccarello's constantly changing stories about the murder.
Speaker 1:Didn't Zuccarello first claim that he saw Joyce Cohen and Lynn Barkley at the Wynn and Sales Surf Shop in Coconut Grove, not at the 7-Eleven in North Miami Beach? And didn't he claim the meeting took place in January 1986 when Joyce was actually in Stimboid Springs, colorado? And Zuccarello said no. He said that the detectives just confused his story. So he asked did Zuccarello tell the cops that his pay for the crime was $2,500 and the El Camino, or $10,000 or $150,000 in cocaine, or three kilos of coke that the gang took with them in a pillowcase from the Cohen house? In fact he had given all those versions at different times. And what about the convenient digital clock on the dashboard of El Camino? Ross produced photos of the El Camino dash. The only clock visible was the standard type with hands, and it was broken. One more thing broken. One more thing, he said While you were in jail and giving detectives all this information about Mrs Cohen's involvement in the crime, didn't Detective John Spear sign you out of jail, take you for haircuts at your favorite salon, drive you to your girlfriend Gina's house and wait outside in the squad car while you had sex with her? Didn't all this special treatment buy testimony from you that the state wanted against Joyce Cohen? And Saccarello flatly denied it and he defended the cops. Detective Spear didn't know about the sex. He had thought Gina's parents were chaperoning the visit.
Speaker 1:Over two days Russ battered Frank Zaccarello for nearly seven hours, frequently provoking nasty exchanges. Zaccarello claimed he had been harassed by defense lawyers during his pretrial deposition, which had lasted a grueling five days. He said I was called on lots of names. He complained I was a piece of garbage, I was an asshole, I was nothing without a gun and a mask. Russ left the hang in the air. He hoped the jury would agree with the character assessment and he was certain that Saccarello came across as a lying, conniving, manipulative creep with a violent past. But would the jury believe he was lying about his crime? The answer might depend upon whether they also believe the evidence the state came up with to corroborate Socorro's story about the Cohen murder.
Speaker 1:During Ross's blistery cross-examination, john Kosternakis objected repeatedly. Most of his objections were denied by Judge Smith, with occasional flashes of annoyance at the prosecutor's demeanor. When Zuccarello was finally excused from the stand, he confronted Castronakis in the corridor outside the courtroom and he said you are a wimp, john. You let that judge push you all over the courtroom. But Castranakis just smiled. Zuccarello had stood up pretty well to Rasmus', pounding, he thought, and the best was yet to come.
Speaker 1:At nearly 5.30 that afternoon, after the jury had been excused for the day, the Gregory Expo requested a hearing. He had been advised. He told Judge Smith that Dr Charles V Vetley, deputy Medical Chief Examiner, had changed his mind about the probable time of Stan Cohen's death and although he had previously stated that Cohen died sometimes between midnight and 6 am, dr Worley now believed that the time was probably 2 and 3 am, just as the state and Frank Zuccarello had contended all along. Dr Whitley had changed his mind after he read the deposition testimony of the defendant's own medical expert, dr Michael Barron. Russ had been furious about Whitley's new opinion ever since DeGregory informed him of it a few days earlier. He was determined to prevent the jury from hearing Wesley's revised testimony. His entire trial strategy, he insisted to the judge, had been predicated on what he believed was the scientific evidence. Now Dr Whitley wanted to change that evidence. He was no longer a neutral expert. Now he was coming to the aid of the state in this prosecution and he said quote the reason Dr Poole is on the jury is because we believed we were on solid ground on the scientific test.
Speaker 1:On Dr Biden and Dr Wedley. He completely complained, as we see each other's depositions, wesley's position. The judge replied noncommittally, and what happened to them to be saying? And Ross shut back and said your Honor would like to look at it that way. It was a rare fit of peak for the usually courteous lawyer. The intense pressure was beginning to tell and the judge said look, I really don't have any way, I'm looking at it. That's what I understood the state to say. And Ross was angry and he said it's just an excuse to say Dr Baden's deposition prompts this, but Judge Smith wanted to hear what Dr Wedley had to say. She said the matter for Evidentiary Hearing at 9 the next morning, friday October 17. Ross sighed loudly. It was going to be a grueling day.
Speaker 1:The deposition of Shavon Janidis was already scheduled for 8 that morning and after the welly hearing the judge planned a full day of trial and the following day, saturday, castronakis and Amso would be videotaping the deposition of Bernard. A House in New York at a town called Waterloo the irony of the name did not escape the lawyers. Alan Ross was under siege and he knew it. He was the first one in the courtroom the next morning, still seething, and there was no banter among the lawyers because they arrived for the hearing and Judge Smith appeased promptly at 9. So Dr Wesley took the witness stand and was sworn and he began to testify. He began to testify and Wesley told the judge that it was a deposition testimony of the defense's medical expert.
Speaker 1:Dr Bathen stated that if Cohen had died at 2 or 3 am, lividity, which is the blood pooling and staining of body tissues after death the color of death should have been visible on Cohen's body in the slides Dr Whitley took at 3 pm the next day slides Dr Whetley took at 3 pm the next day. So Dr Baden reviewed copies of Dr Whetley's slides and saw no lividity. Therefore he concluded that death had to happen shortly before 5 30 am, as Joyce Cohen had said. After reading Baden's opinion, dr Whetley said he took another look at his own slides. This time he used the originals, not copies. He projected them in total darkness in the conference room which is windowless, in the basement of the new medical examiner's building. Then he saw it. It was faint but recognizable, just as Dr Baden said it should be. There's a pattern of faded model reddish color on the right side of Cohen's body. That's lividity. He had called Kevin DeGregory immediately.
Speaker 1:Despite Dr Wettley's unemotional recitation, ross refused to give up. He complained to the judge that Gregory had pressured Dr Whetley to change his mind to give the state the evidence he needed on the time of Cohen's death. Did Kevin D Gregory had anything to do with the change in your opinion? Asked the judge to Dr Wortley directly and he said no, nothing whatsoever. So Judge Smith said well, I see no basis for your allegations. Defense lawyer Ross. But Ross was not mollified because of the unreliability and prejudice of Dr Wesley's new opinion. That evidence shouldn't come before the jury. He argued angrily. So George Smith ruled that Dr Wesley could testify in accordance with his new opinion. In accordance with his new opinion, ross promptly moved from his trial and the motion was denied. But in response to his outrage cries, the judge allowed the defense to use an additional medical expert to corroborate Dr Baden's opinion that Cohen had died shortly before 5.30 am. As the defender claimed, ross already had someone in mind, dr Werner Spitz, who is a former medical examiner in Detroit, michigan.
Speaker 1:It had been a bad day for the defense, as pieces of the state's case seemed to fail into place almost miraculously. So Ross's carefully constructed defense was being sabotaged. Defense attorney Ross looked exhausted and battled and his client was beginning to show the strain. Joyce complained of a headache at lunchtime and by the end of the day her face was flushed, her eyes teary. For the first time, the prosecution team cautiously scented victory and Paul Matheson said excitedly now we got two days to win this Frank Socorro's testimony and the physical evidence. If the jury doesn't believe Socorro, no problem, we have the experts and the physical evidence against her. We'll be right back.
