Court Watching: Jury finds Coskie guilty of second-degree murder in VBT shooting

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
After an hour of deliberation Oct. 29, a Wayne County Circuit Court jury found Kenneth William Coskie, 74, of Van Buren Township, guilty of second-degree murder instead of the first-degree murder charge that had been pressed.
The jury also found him guilty of the second charge of felony firearm, which carries a two-year mandatory sentence.
Coskie was charged with premeditated, first-degree murder, after he shot Eric Williams, 44, of Van Buren Township just before 8 p.m. on April 9.
The trial started Monday, Oct. 27, and ran Tuesday, Oct. 28 and until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29, when the jury went out to deliberate and found him guilty of the second-degree murder charge.
Sentencing will be at 9 a.m. Nov. 14 before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Vera Massey Jones.
During jury selection, one of the jurors, from Sumpter Township, told the judge that she had read about the case in the Independent and the court had no problem with that and put her on the jury anyway.
After the trial, a juror said two other women jurors at first wanted a not-guilty verdict because they were stuck in the “poor grandpa mold.”
Coskie, who has been held in the Wayne County Jail since the shooting, testified that his house near the corner of Michigan Avenue and Denton roads had been condemned and he was living in a camper in the front yard.
Coskie told the jury that he had gone to Walmart to buy some gun oil and shells and had oiled his gun. He said he was loading his gun when the man who had hit him on the head the last time they were together showed up.
Coskie testified that he shot the man.
Court-appointed attorney Kim Basen defended Coskie, while Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor LaDonna E. Logan prosecuted the case.
Coskie had been held at the Wayne County Jail on $1 million bond since the shooting.