Cathy Cobb murder trial: Jury hears evidence in 1998 cold case

William Hall was 19 years old when he found his mother dead in her bed, the victim of what he was told was "asphyxiation by strangulation."

Hall's mother, Cathy Cobb, died in 1998 and her case was classified as "cold" not long after. Attorneys say the case was reopened in 2005 after the mayor asked that Salt Lake city police reopen their cold cases.

DNA evidence taken from Cobb's fingernails led them to Michael Waddell Johnson, 64, Cobb's former husband, who is now standing trial for Cobb's slaying. In opening arguments heard before 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton and a nine-person jury, state prosecutor Katherine Bernards-Goodman said society failed Cobb.

"In January of 1998, Cathy Cobb was a 99-pound black woman who allowed herself to remain in an abusive relationship," Bernards-Goodman said. "This is the type of individual society doesn't want to pay a lot of attention to and the defendant counted on that."

Bernards-Goodman said that Johnson had told various accounts of the woman's death, saying in one instance that he had been using drugs with Cobb but that she had left and he had gone to the apartment of some other women. He later changed his story, saying that Cobb had been killed by "a Mexican," who he said he found in Cobb's home when he went to check on her. He said he was able to stop the alleged assailant only by stabbing him, rolling the body up in a rug and dropping it in a dumpster.

But Bernards-Goodman said that the DNA evidence pointed to Johnson and that while society failed Cobb, it hadn't failed her completely. She told the jurors she would ask them for a guilty verdict in the case.

Defense attorney Nisa Sisneros argued that it wasn't society that failed Cobb but the detectives investigating her death. She said detectives failed to follow other leads, including a second DNA profile found by the lab processing the evidence, because they were "pushing a pre-determined outcome."

Sisneros said that Cobb was a drug user. The medical examiner found she had a blood alcohol level of .33 and cocaine in her system when she died. She said one medical examiner said Cobb could have died from more minor injuries that were aggravated by the substances in her system.

"The cause of death and manner of death might not have been a homicide," Sisneros said. "It might have been an accident. ... At the end of this case, every one of you is going to have more questions than answers and that, ladies and gentleman, is reasonable doubt."

The case is scheduled to last five days. The judge heard testimony Monday from Cobb's son and the police who responded to the scene.

e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com