Cosby Slaying Suspect Charged With Murder

Prosecutors on Friday filed a murder charge that could bring the death penalty to the North Hollywood teenager accused of fatally shooting Ennis Cosby during a random robbery attempt nearly two months ago.

Mikail “Michael” Markhasev, 18, was held without bail and is expected to be arraigned March 28 on one count of murder, another of attempted robbery and the use of a firearm in the Jan. 16 slaying of Bill Cosby’s son.

Dressed in a white T-shirt, his hands jammed in the pockets of his dark pants, Markhasev uttered only one word aloud Friday in court. Asked by Los Angeles Municipal Judge Michael K. Kellogg if he agreed to the two-week delay, Markhasev said, “Yes.”

As Markhasev briefly appeared in court, police, school officials and former classmates described him as a young immigrant who started out well in school but took a turn for the worse.

To some, Markhasev was a nice guy and a ladies man who did well in schools known for academic excellence. To others, he was known as an aspiring gang member named “Pee Wee” whose brushes with the law sent him to an Orange County camp for juvenile offenders.

“We just thought he was a little white boy who wanted to be a cholo, he was a wannabe, he wanted to be a gang member,” said Olga Medina, 18, a former classmate at Los Alamitos High School.

Markhasev and his mother emigrated from the Ukraine in 1989, leaving the city of Lvov, an industrial and cultural center of 800,000. Sources said they entered the United States as refugees. Police misidentified the teenager as a Russian immigrant at a news conference Thursday.

During his first three years in this country, Markhasev attended schools in the Los Angeles area, then moved to Orange County.

In his freshman year at Los Alamitos High School, Markhasev was known as “Mike” or “Skippy” to his friends. He was tall, skinny but considered “cute” and a whiz at algebra, classmates said. He lived with his mother in a neat apartment on a quiet, tree-lined street, a 10-minute walk from school.

The school principal said Markhasev attended Los Alamitos for 2 1/2 years. Classmates recalled that he ran into trouble after he allegedly got into a fight with another student.

“He said it was self-defense, it was a misunderstanding,” said Rigoberto Araujo, 18, a senior who said he considered Markhasev “my brother.”

“He always looked out for me,” Araujo said. “He always had my back. He always stood up for the little kids, too.”

Markhasev transferred to Reseda High School in early 1995. There, he “adjusted socially with students and staff,” Principal Bob Kladifko said.

His only scrape, school officials said, was when he got caught smoking cigarettes on campus.

At Reseda, Kladifko said Markhasev had a B average. But the principal said Markhasev’s grades dipped just before he left the school in October 1995.

Looking back, Kladifko said: “Something changed in his life.”

That October, Markhasev’s schooling at Reseda was interrupted by a stay at the Los Pinos juvenile detention camp for an offense that authorities declined to discuss because of the confidentiality of juvenile records.

After his time there, Markhasev apparently lived with his mother in Encino. Despite the distance, Markhasev stayed in touch with Orange County friends. In fact, former schoolmates said they saw him at a bus stop near his former high school just two weeks ago.

In January, he and his mother moved into an apartment in North Hollywood--about the time Cosby was slain.

For the past month, Markhasev had been working evenings and Sundays as a cashier at Mainly Seconds Pottery, Plants and Things a couple of blocks from his apartment, said store owner Jim Herzoff.

“He seemed very pleasant,” Herzoff said. “He was always very cordial to me . . . and seemed the same way with the other employees and the customers. He was a quiet guy, kept to himself.”

Markhasev was supposed to work on Wednesday, Herzoff said, adding: “Where do I send his paycheck now?”

Even as Markhasev’s case moved to the courtroom Friday, detectives said they were continuing to investigate the slaying.

Los Angeles Police Capt. Will Gartland, who oversees the department’s robbery-homicide division, said the two people detained earlier in the week in connection with the slaying and later released could be brought back for additional questioning.

He described them as “witnesses with information,” but declined to elaborate.

One law enforcement source said detectives are attempting to determine whether the two people had pertinent information either before or after Cosby was shot.

Another police source Friday said Markhasev was “surprised” when detectives from the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section placed him under arrest outside his North Hollywood apartment building.

After tailing him most of the day Wednesday, the SIS detectives were given the word to arrest Markhasev late in the afternoon. Detectives watched him as he casually left his apartment, alone, and then approached him, the source said.

The SIS detectives did not tell Markhasev why he was being arrested, leaving that to the homicide detectives handling the case. He was calm and unarmed, the source said.

Although police say Markhasev resembles a composite sketch released shortly after the killing, they have refused to say whether the witness who provided the description--a 47-year-old woman who saw the gunman shortly before the shooting--had identified Markhasev as Cosby’s assailant.

According to police, the 27-year-old Cosby was shot in the head as he repaired a flat tire on his Mercedes-Benz convertible on a darkened side road off Mulholland Drive.

Markhasev’s appearance in court Friday marked a hint of the fierce legal jockeying sure to come in the months ahead--as well as the tension between the courts and the press.

The hearing was devoted almost entirely to the issue of whether newspaper and television cameras could take photos of Markhasev in the courtroom.

Though Markhasev’s picture--released by the LAPD at a Thursday news conference--had been splashed on the pages of newspapers and shown on countless TV shows, both the prosecution and the defense objected Friday to photos in court.

More photos, Deputy Dist. Atty. Anne Ingalls said, might jeopardize an ongoing investigation.

Defense attorney Darren T. Kavinoky objected “because identity is an issue,” a comment that signaled a likely defense strategy--the issue of whether eyewitness testimony can identify Markhasev as the killer.

Kellogg refused to allow any more photos.

Referring to the photo released Thursday, the judge said: “If there’s one mistake that’s been made . . . that’s a mistake that’s been made. I’m not going to compound that problem.”

Because prosecutors filed a special circumstances charge--that the killing occurred in the course of an attempted robbery--Markhasev could be eligible for the death penalty. A special committee of senior prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty or opt for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

That decision is not expected for months.

Times staff writers Matt Lait, Jim Newton, Thao Hua, Tina Nguyen, Andrew Blankstein, Duke Helfand and Abigail Goldman contributed to this report.