A jury trial scheduled to begin Monday (March 10) for Rico Tavarous Cohn, accused of strangling a 21-year-old Fayetteville woman to death in 2006, will be reset to start at an undetermined future date, officials said.
Cohn’s lawyers said evidence that hasn’t been tested needs to undergo DNA testing and analysis, which cannot be completed by March 10, according to a motion filed March 7 in Washington County Circuit Court.
Those items of evidence, which were confirmed Jan. 24, 2014, are now undergoing testing, according to the motion submitted by Cohn’s public defender, Tony Pirani.
The motion asks that the trial date not be rescheduled for at least three months.
Circuit Judge William Storey will reschedule a trail date soon, court officials said.
Cohn is accused of strangling Nina Ingram to death in her Fayetteville apartment. At his arraignment in June 2012, he pleaded not guilty to a capital-murder charge.
Ingram, a business student at NorthWest Arkansas Community Colllege, was found strangled April 22, 2006, in her apartment at what then was known as the Law Quad Apartments at 701 W. Sycamore St. The complex is now called Club At The Creek.
One of her brothers and his friend found her body after they crawled through an unlocked window, police said. They went to the apartment to check on Ingram after the family couldn’t reach her by phone.
Despite continued investigating by police, Ingram’s killing had gone unsolved for six years. In April 2012, a new detective was assigned to work solely on solving the case, after which police arrested Cohn in connection with Ingram’s death, court records show.
Cohn told police he was a maintenance worker at the apartment complex at the time of Ingram’s death, although they said he might have been lying to create an alibi for being at the location, according to court documents.
Court documents state the suspect said he would not take a plea deal under any circumstances, saying he’s innocent in Ingram’s death. If found guilty, Cohn could face the death penalty, according to court documents.
