WEBVTT 00:00:01.881 --> 00:00:03.800 narrator: A quiet October evening in Atlanta 00:00:03.883 --> 00:00:05.427 is suddenly shattered. 00:00:05.468 --> 00:00:08.471 I get a call going, they've got a bad situation. 00:00:08.513 --> 00:00:12.392 The young man discovered his mother's body 00:00:12.475 --> 00:00:13.768 lying in a pool of blood. 00:00:16.062 --> 00:00:18.523 The police had found bloody fingerprints 00:00:18.565 --> 00:00:21.317 where she had tried to dial 911. 00:00:21.401 --> 00:00:24.112 The door leading to the bedroom was forced open. 00:00:24.154 --> 00:00:26.865 Someone had kicked it off the frame. 00:00:26.906 --> 00:00:28.950 narrator: A community erupts in panic 00:00:28.992 --> 00:00:31.327 as the victim is identified. 00:00:31.411 --> 00:00:35.415 We recognized we had a deceased Fulton County judge. 00:00:35.457 --> 00:00:38.084 She was about to handle a major case 00:00:38.126 --> 00:00:41.087 involving a defendant who was a known gangster. 00:00:41.129 --> 00:00:43.173 narrator: But the judge's long docket 00:00:43.256 --> 00:00:46.968 means detectives have no shortage of suspects. 00:00:47.010 --> 00:00:48.344 There was worry at the courthouse 00:00:48.428 --> 00:00:50.472 that other judges could be targeted. 00:00:50.555 --> 00:00:53.099 Because she was a Superior Court judge, 00:00:53.141 --> 00:00:54.642 the type of crime I felt that we were 00:00:54.726 --> 00:00:55.935 dealing with was a hit. 00:01:16.289 --> 00:01:18.208 narrator: In the late '90s, 00:01:18.249 --> 00:01:20.877 ATL becomes the new center of the South. 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:25.381 The summer Olympics of 1996 have come and gone, 00:01:25.423 --> 00:01:27.801 but its effect on the status of the city 00:01:27.842 --> 00:01:30.887 continues to blossom. 00:01:30.929 --> 00:01:35.642 The city was very vibrant. It was very busy. 00:01:35.642 --> 00:01:37.310 It was very exciting. 00:01:37.310 --> 00:01:39.604 It was an exciting time. It was a bustling time. 00:01:39.646 --> 00:01:42.190 It was an election year for me and for a lot of us. 00:01:42.232 --> 00:01:45.193 There was so much going on, so many opportunities. 00:01:45.235 --> 00:01:47.028 And if you were involved in politics 00:01:47.070 --> 00:01:49.614 or any aspect of the city, 00:01:49.656 --> 00:01:52.784 you identified with Atlanta. It was your city. 00:01:52.826 --> 00:01:54.953 It was growing. 00:01:54.994 --> 00:01:57.372 And we were all feeling a part of it. 00:01:57.413 --> 00:01:59.833 narrator: Families with old money 00:01:59.874 --> 00:02:02.335 and newly made millionaires in Atlanta 00:02:02.335 --> 00:02:04.045 are all drawn to the blossoming 00:02:04.087 --> 00:02:06.714 suburban paradise of Cascade Heights, 00:02:06.756 --> 00:02:11.052 where the goal is to buy the biggest house on the block. 00:02:11.094 --> 00:02:13.513 Cascade Heights was an up-and-coming-- 00:02:13.513 --> 00:02:16.599 it was upper-middle-class suburban area. 00:02:16.641 --> 00:02:19.352 Being on Cascade or associated with Cascade 00:02:19.435 --> 00:02:20.937 brought prestige in this city, 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:23.565 especially in the Black community. 00:02:23.606 --> 00:02:26.943 There were and have been tours of Atlanta homes, 00:02:27.026 --> 00:02:31.531 and Cascade would always be included as an example 00:02:31.531 --> 00:02:34.117 of how well the Black community was doing. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:36.411 narrator: Denizens of the Cascade 00:02:36.452 --> 00:02:39.914 are used to a lifestyle of quiet comfort, 00:02:39.956 --> 00:02:43.251 but on October 16, 1996, 00:02:43.293 --> 00:02:47.672 crime eventually makes its way into the neighborhood. 00:02:47.714 --> 00:02:51.176 A 911 call came in from a neighbor next door 00:02:51.217 --> 00:02:53.678 reporting that a young man, 00:02:53.720 --> 00:02:56.514 Raynard Cook, had come home from school 00:02:56.556 --> 00:02:59.142 and discovered his mother's body 00:02:59.184 --> 00:03:02.520 lying in a pool of blood in the house. 00:03:04.606 --> 00:03:08.401 I get a call going, they've got a bad situation. 00:03:08.401 --> 00:03:10.862 Fire rescue folks were gone when I got there, 00:03:10.904 --> 00:03:13.823 but I knew from listening to the radio 00:03:13.865 --> 00:03:17.952 they had already determined that she was deceased. 00:03:19.996 --> 00:03:23.124 I walked through the crime scene. 00:03:23.166 --> 00:03:24.959 There was blood all over the floor 00:03:25.001 --> 00:03:27.253 right inside the doorway. 00:03:27.253 --> 00:03:29.714 We followed the blood around to the kitchen, 00:03:29.756 --> 00:03:32.759 and it covered almost the entire floor 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.054 with a woman laying on her side 00:03:36.095 --> 00:03:37.722 in the middle of it. 00:03:37.764 --> 00:03:42.685 She was wearing a "re-elect Judge Cook" T-shirt 00:03:42.727 --> 00:03:46.773 and just a pair of panties, 00:03:46.856 --> 00:03:49.442 and that was it. 00:03:50.485 --> 00:03:55.031 At the time, we had no idea really where the wound was at 00:03:55.073 --> 00:03:58.243 because there was just too much blood. 00:03:58.284 --> 00:04:02.455 And, of course, we cannot move the body at that point. 00:04:02.497 --> 00:04:04.415 We have to wait on the medical examiner. 00:04:04.457 --> 00:04:07.627 We noticed some unopened mail. 00:04:07.669 --> 00:04:10.255 And we looked at it, and we recognized 00:04:10.296 --> 00:04:13.675 we had a deceased Fulton County judge. 00:04:13.716 --> 00:04:17.220 narrator: The victim is Judge Josephine Holmes-Cook. 00:04:17.303 --> 00:04:18.805 Josephine Holmes-Cook 00:04:18.846 --> 00:04:23.685 was a Superior Court judge here in Atlanta. 00:04:23.726 --> 00:04:28.022 She had a very powerful reputation here in the city. 00:04:28.064 --> 00:04:31.067 narrator: Coming from a prominent Atlanta family 00:04:31.150 --> 00:04:34.487 and being at the heart of the city's justice community, 00:04:34.570 --> 00:04:37.240 Judge Cook has many friends high up 00:04:37.323 --> 00:04:39.158 in the ranks of law enforcement 00:04:39.158 --> 00:04:42.036 who are soon monitoring the case. 00:04:43.663 --> 00:04:48.251 I met her in 1992 when we were both running for office. 00:04:48.293 --> 00:04:50.169 Judge Cook was running for a judgeship 00:04:50.211 --> 00:04:53.006 on the Superior Court of Fulton County. 00:04:53.047 --> 00:04:54.507 I was running for the office of sheriff. 00:04:54.549 --> 00:04:57.010 She was dedicated to her craft. 00:04:57.051 --> 00:04:59.554 Wanting to do better. Always wanting to do better. 00:04:59.595 --> 00:05:01.681 Not just for herself, but also, I think, 00:05:01.723 --> 00:05:05.184 for her family and for the greater Atlanta community. 00:05:05.268 --> 00:05:08.521 When I got the call, it is a real time 00:05:08.563 --> 00:05:11.357 of very heightened emotion 00:05:11.441 --> 00:05:14.861 till you can kind of get a sense of what has happened, 00:05:14.861 --> 00:05:16.571 what is going on. 00:05:16.612 --> 00:05:19.032 narrator: Initial speculation about cause of death 00:05:19.073 --> 00:05:22.869 points to the judge's recent political troubles. 00:05:22.910 --> 00:05:25.955 Judge Holmes was elected to the bench in 1992 00:05:25.997 --> 00:05:28.041 to a four-year term, 00:05:28.082 --> 00:05:31.377 and she sat for reelection in 1996. 00:05:31.419 --> 00:05:33.546 She lost that runoff election, 00:05:33.629 --> 00:05:34.964 and she was supposed to leave the bench 00:05:35.006 --> 00:05:36.299 at the end of the year. 00:05:36.382 --> 00:05:38.968 So that was the first thing people thought, 00:05:39.010 --> 00:05:40.386 was, "Was it suicide?" 00:05:40.428 --> 00:05:42.555 When you run for public office, 00:05:42.638 --> 00:05:45.224 you put yourself out to the community 00:05:45.266 --> 00:05:48.353 and to be told no, you know, 00:05:48.394 --> 00:05:50.897 by the general community is hard on the ego. 00:05:50.938 --> 00:05:53.483 She was just very upset about that. 00:05:53.566 --> 00:05:56.486 And I can understand why some might have thought 00:05:56.569 --> 00:05:58.571 initially that it might have been a suicide. 00:06:00.239 --> 00:06:02.075 narrator: As knowledge of the judge's 00:06:02.075 --> 00:06:05.578 unsuccessful run surfaces, detectives speculate 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:07.872 whether this might have been a suicide. 00:06:07.914 --> 00:06:10.208 But when the medical examiner arrives, 00:06:10.249 --> 00:06:14.587 the cause of death becomes abundantly clear. 00:06:14.629 --> 00:06:17.965 When Josephine's body was actually looked at, 00:06:18.007 --> 00:06:23.596 they discovered a single gunshot wound of entry 00:06:23.638 --> 00:06:29.268 to the rear of her body near her shoulder, 00:06:29.268 --> 00:06:32.605 very close to her neck. 00:06:32.688 --> 00:06:35.608 That sort of dispelled any idea 00:06:35.691 --> 00:06:39.487 that somehow Judge Cook shot herself. 00:06:39.570 --> 00:06:42.573 narrator: Investigators soon spot other details 00:06:42.615 --> 00:06:45.785 in the unsettling scene that would help answer, 00:06:45.785 --> 00:06:48.579 who could have gunned down Judge Cook? 00:06:48.621 --> 00:06:52.458 They found a trail of blood on the staircase, 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:56.087 and it led directly back to the bedroom. 00:06:56.129 --> 00:06:58.548 Blood is on the wall. 00:06:58.589 --> 00:07:01.092 Blood on the pillowcases. 00:07:02.969 --> 00:07:05.680 It was gruesome--I had never seen anything that gruesome 00:07:05.721 --> 00:07:07.932 in my tenure as a detective. 00:07:07.974 --> 00:07:11.561 I could see that the incident had happened in her bedroom. 00:07:11.602 --> 00:07:15.148 And so then, you know, the question is, who did it? 00:07:15.189 --> 00:07:16.566 Who did it? 00:07:16.607 --> 00:07:19.152 narrator: Amidst the traces of violence, 00:07:19.152 --> 00:07:23.614 the bedroom yields another key indicator of a shooting death. 00:07:23.656 --> 00:07:27.326 A search of the bedclothes 00:07:27.326 --> 00:07:31.622 found a 9-millimeter spent projectile 00:07:31.664 --> 00:07:36.836 and a 9-millimeter empty brass casing. 00:07:39.338 --> 00:07:43.342 As we continued to examine the crime scene, 00:07:43.384 --> 00:07:47.013 we noticed that blood was on the telephone. 00:07:47.054 --> 00:07:49.348 There was some bloodstains on some of the numbers 00:07:49.348 --> 00:07:51.100 on the keypad. 00:07:51.142 --> 00:07:54.645 It looked like she had tried to use the phone, 00:07:54.687 --> 00:07:58.149 but the phone had been disconnected from the wall. 00:07:58.191 --> 00:08:01.277 And she was trying to make her way downstairs 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:03.905 to a hardwired phone. 00:08:03.988 --> 00:08:06.699 And so what I could see was her process-- 00:08:06.741 --> 00:08:08.367 her progress down those steps. 00:08:08.451 --> 00:08:11.996 Because literally with every step there was a blood spurt. 00:08:12.038 --> 00:08:15.208 She tried to drag herself downstairs to make a call 00:08:15.208 --> 00:08:18.461 from the downstairs phone, and she bled to death. 00:08:18.503 --> 00:08:20.338 It was a slow death. 00:08:22.715 --> 00:08:24.884 One of the things you look for is, 00:08:24.926 --> 00:08:28.804 is there anything obviously out of place or missing? 00:08:28.846 --> 00:08:33.100 In the bedroom, the victim's pocketbook was still there 00:08:33.142 --> 00:08:35.770 with her credit cards and things like that in it. 00:08:35.811 --> 00:08:39.232 But there was also a very expensive-looking watch, 00:08:39.232 --> 00:08:43.152 which turned out to actually be a genuine Rolex watch. 00:08:43.194 --> 00:08:45.279 And those kinds of things, 00:08:45.321 --> 00:08:47.865 if it's a burglary or a robbery, 00:08:47.907 --> 00:08:49.909 those are quick snatch-and-grabs. 00:08:49.992 --> 00:08:52.912 It made no sense to think that that's what this was. 00:08:52.912 --> 00:08:54.747 narrator: If this isn't a robbery, 00:08:54.747 --> 00:08:56.749 what is the motive for killing 00:08:56.832 --> 00:08:58.918 such a prominent public figure? 00:08:59.001 --> 00:09:02.338 First thing I thought of-- and it's quite common-- 00:09:02.380 --> 00:09:05.550 is that it was either a close friend, 00:09:05.591 --> 00:09:08.970 family member, or potentially 00:09:09.053 --> 00:09:12.390 a paramour of some kind that we knew nothing about. 00:09:13.432 --> 00:09:18.771 The officers and I carefully went through the crime scene 00:09:18.813 --> 00:09:20.565 looking for additional evidence, 00:09:20.606 --> 00:09:23.234 such as a murder weapon, 00:09:23.276 --> 00:09:27.113 but there was no sign of a firearm whatsoever. 00:09:27.154 --> 00:09:29.031 The crime scene unit was very meticulous 00:09:29.073 --> 00:09:30.741 looking for fingerprints. 00:09:30.783 --> 00:09:34.453 They found a number of fingerprints 00:09:34.453 --> 00:09:35.955 throughout the house. 00:09:35.997 --> 00:09:40.209 We also collected the blood-soaked bedclothes, 00:09:40.293 --> 00:09:43.921 carpet, some of the other cloth items 00:09:43.963 --> 00:09:47.133 to transport them to the crime lab 00:09:47.216 --> 00:09:49.135 for blood analysis. 00:09:49.176 --> 00:09:52.138 narrator: Authorities examine the rest of the upstairs 00:09:52.179 --> 00:09:56.309 and find something unusual on one of the bedroom doors. 00:09:56.350 --> 00:09:58.644 As we continued to examine the crime scene room, 00:09:58.644 --> 00:10:01.897 we noticed that the door leading to the bedroom 00:10:01.939 --> 00:10:05.901 of the son of the judge, Raynard Cook, was forced open. 00:10:07.528 --> 00:10:09.655 Someone had kicked it off the frame. 00:10:09.655 --> 00:10:11.490 His room was ransacked. 00:10:11.490 --> 00:10:14.160 While searching Raynard's room, 00:10:14.201 --> 00:10:16.996 under Raynard's bed there was a box 00:10:16.996 --> 00:10:19.832 containing a fairly substantial amount 00:10:19.832 --> 00:10:21.626 of what appeared to be marijuana, 00:10:21.667 --> 00:10:25.463 individually packaged as if for sale. 00:10:25.504 --> 00:10:28.841 His mother would have been devastated to learn 00:10:28.841 --> 00:10:32.511 that her only son had stooped so low 00:10:32.553 --> 00:10:35.348 as to sell drugs. 00:10:38.017 --> 00:10:41.062 Suspects for this homicide ranged from everything 00:10:41.145 --> 00:10:45.191 from an angry defendant or participant 00:10:45.274 --> 00:10:47.610 in one of Judge Cook's cases 00:10:47.652 --> 00:10:50.029 to some sort of professional hit. 00:10:50.029 --> 00:10:52.782 They discovered that one of the cases 00:10:52.823 --> 00:10:55.034 that she had had was a very dangerous gentleman. 00:10:55.034 --> 00:10:57.286 He was also involved in a double, triple homicide. 00:10:57.370 --> 00:10:59.372 We had gotten him to the point 00:10:59.372 --> 00:11:02.124 where he had almost confessed to the crime. 00:11:02.166 --> 00:11:04.627 And that's when the family decided to stop the interview. 00:11:15.304 --> 00:11:17.723 narrator: Police across the city of Atlanta 00:11:17.723 --> 00:11:21.477 are on high alert just hours after a well-respected judge, 00:11:21.560 --> 00:11:24.105 the honorable Josephine Holmes-Cook, 00:11:24.146 --> 00:11:29.527 is found brutally slain in her upscale Cascade Heights home. 00:11:29.568 --> 00:11:32.655 as investigators comb through the crime scene, 00:11:32.697 --> 00:11:35.408 they are unnerved by a discovery made 00:11:35.449 --> 00:11:39.495 in the bedroom of the judge's teenage son, Raynard. 00:11:41.372 --> 00:11:44.917 We discovered a shoebox that contained 00:11:44.959 --> 00:11:49.630 individually packaged bags of marijuana 00:11:49.672 --> 00:11:51.716 and a large sum of cash. 00:11:51.757 --> 00:11:54.552 narrator: Detectives need to determine 00:11:54.593 --> 00:11:58.764 if the drugs are a sign of something more ominous. 00:11:58.806 --> 00:12:01.517 Investigators went next door to a neighbor's house 00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:03.602 to speak with Raynard. 00:12:03.602 --> 00:12:07.314 During that initial interview with Raynard Cook, 00:12:07.356 --> 00:12:09.275 the investigators wanted to know 00:12:09.316 --> 00:12:11.944 some of the circumstances surrounding that, 00:12:12.027 --> 00:12:15.156 for instance, whether or not he had seen any suspicious people 00:12:15.197 --> 00:12:16.699 when he came home, 00:12:16.782 --> 00:12:19.452 if he noticed that there was any damage or anything done 00:12:19.493 --> 00:12:21.704 to any of the locking mechanisms of the house, 00:12:21.787 --> 00:12:25.541 and what did he do once he actually entered the home? 00:12:25.624 --> 00:12:28.502 He indicated to the investigators 00:12:28.544 --> 00:12:31.464 that he had left the home around 7:00 a.m. 00:12:31.505 --> 00:12:33.007 that morning, headed for school. 00:12:33.048 --> 00:12:34.508 His mother was there in the house, 00:12:34.550 --> 00:12:36.218 and she was still alive. 00:12:36.260 --> 00:12:39.472 He spent the day at school. He attended football practice, 00:12:39.513 --> 00:12:41.807 which lasted until the early evening, 00:12:41.849 --> 00:12:44.810 that he arrived back at the house about 6:00 p.m., 00:12:44.852 --> 00:12:48.856 and he discovered his mother lying in a pool of blood. 00:12:52.276 --> 00:12:54.028 narrator: Detectives then ask Raynard 00:12:54.069 --> 00:12:56.947 about the shoebox found in his room. 00:12:56.989 --> 00:12:59.283 The teen admits the drugs are his 00:12:59.325 --> 00:13:01.577 and to selling to some of his friends. 00:13:01.619 --> 00:13:03.496 He had anything and everything 00:13:03.496 --> 00:13:04.830 he could possibly want. 00:13:04.914 --> 00:13:07.875 His argument was he wanted to have his own money, 00:13:07.958 --> 00:13:10.503 so he got into selling pot. 00:13:10.544 --> 00:13:12.755 But he was not a big drug dealer 00:13:12.838 --> 00:13:15.090 by any stretch of the imagination. 00:13:15.132 --> 00:13:18.677 narrator: Fulton County police sum up Raynard's drug business 00:13:18.719 --> 00:13:21.263 as the transgressions of a teenager 00:13:21.305 --> 00:13:23.599 and turn their attention to getting a statement 00:13:23.682 --> 00:13:26.435 from the neighbor who called 911. 00:13:26.477 --> 00:13:30.689 The neighbor said, "Raynard came to my house, 00:13:30.689 --> 00:13:34.109 and he said, 'I think there's something wrong with my mom.'" 00:13:34.151 --> 00:13:36.695 And so she goes next door, 00:13:36.737 --> 00:13:40.741 sees Josephine lying on the floor in a pool of blood. 00:13:40.783 --> 00:13:44.495 She backs out of the house. She goes back to her house. 00:13:44.537 --> 00:13:48.249 She calls 911, and she tells Raynard to come inside 00:13:48.332 --> 00:13:50.334 and to have a seat. 00:13:50.376 --> 00:13:52.461 Based on what he told us, 00:13:52.503 --> 00:13:55.047 based on what the neighbors was telling us, 00:13:55.047 --> 00:13:59.468 we allowed our witness to leave that night. 00:13:59.510 --> 00:14:03.389 narrator: Investigators let Raynard grieve in peace, 00:14:03.430 --> 00:14:05.558 as detectives now focus their sights 00:14:05.599 --> 00:14:07.893 on the judge's closest relationships. 00:14:07.893 --> 00:14:12.356 Normally in a domestic-related homicide case, 00:14:12.398 --> 00:14:15.901 the spouse or loved one or family member 00:14:15.901 --> 00:14:18.237 immediately becomes a suspect. 00:14:18.237 --> 00:14:20.531 And in this case, you know, they looked at 00:14:20.573 --> 00:14:23.993 Josephine Cook's husband, Ruben, very carefully. 00:14:24.076 --> 00:14:28.080 Raynard's father drove the really large trucks 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:30.374 across country to deliver goods 00:14:30.416 --> 00:14:32.251 to various locations. 00:14:32.334 --> 00:14:33.669 Police did interview him. 00:14:33.752 --> 00:14:35.921 They established the fact that he was not present, 00:14:35.963 --> 00:14:37.715 that he was on the road, 00:14:37.756 --> 00:14:41.719 driving at the time of Josephine's death, 00:14:41.760 --> 00:14:44.221 and learned a little bit about the family dynamic. 00:14:45.931 --> 00:14:48.601 Judge Cook and her husband, Ruben, 00:14:48.642 --> 00:14:50.519 they'd been married about 20 years. 00:14:50.561 --> 00:14:53.272 He was on the road most of the time. 00:14:53.272 --> 00:14:56.609 So that made Judge Cook, in a sense, a single parent, 00:14:56.650 --> 00:15:02.031 and she and her son Raynard had a difficult relationship. 00:15:02.072 --> 00:15:04.533 She is doing all that she can to ensure 00:15:04.617 --> 00:15:06.035 that her son has a good future. 00:15:06.076 --> 00:15:07.828 She's got him at an excellent school. 00:15:07.912 --> 00:15:09.872 She's paying attention to him as a mother. 00:15:09.914 --> 00:15:12.917 narrator: Police learn that Raynard is enrolled 00:15:12.958 --> 00:15:16.045 at one of the most prestigious schools in the South. 00:15:17.630 --> 00:15:19.423 Woodward Academy has children 00:15:19.465 --> 00:15:22.134 from some of the crème de la crme 00:15:22.217 --> 00:15:24.428 in Atlanta's high society. 00:15:24.470 --> 00:15:27.181 The tuition is extremely expensive. 00:15:27.264 --> 00:15:30.851 The school has a rigorous academic program. 00:15:30.893 --> 00:15:33.437 And so she was able to get him enrolled, 00:15:33.479 --> 00:15:35.981 despite the fact that he did not have good grades. 00:15:35.981 --> 00:15:37.983 narrator: Wanting to officially rule 00:15:38.025 --> 00:15:40.527 the judge's close family out as suspects, 00:15:40.569 --> 00:15:44.281 detectives confirm Raynard was at school 00:15:44.323 --> 00:15:45.866 the morning his mother was killed. 00:15:45.908 --> 00:15:48.619 All of his friends, people he was at school with, 00:15:48.661 --> 00:15:49.995 he said that he was at school with. 00:15:50.037 --> 00:15:51.997 So his alibi checked out. 00:15:51.997 --> 00:15:55.376 narrator: With those closest to her accounted for, 00:15:55.459 --> 00:15:57.461 detectives shift the investigation 00:15:57.503 --> 00:15:58.796 to the other entity 00:15:58.837 --> 00:16:00.881 at the center of Judge Cook's life, 00:16:00.923 --> 00:16:03.634 her high-profile career. 00:16:03.676 --> 00:16:08.472 Investigators really opened up the police playbook 00:16:08.514 --> 00:16:12.059 in terms of trying to determine a motive 00:16:12.101 --> 00:16:14.937 or a possible suspect for this homicide. 00:16:14.979 --> 00:16:19.858 And it ranged from everything from an angry defendant 00:16:19.858 --> 00:16:23.445 or participant in one of Judge Cook's cases 00:16:23.487 --> 00:16:26.115 to some sort of professional hit 00:16:26.156 --> 00:16:29.702 because of some ruling that she had made in court. 00:16:29.743 --> 00:16:33.038 When you have a scenario where a judge is killed, 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:36.208 you start thinking, "Was it a case that she handled?" 00:16:36.208 --> 00:16:39.128 narrator: Fulton County judges are wracked with fear 00:16:39.169 --> 00:16:43.382 that someone is trying to send a deadly message. 00:16:43.382 --> 00:16:45.217 There was worry at the courthouse 00:16:45.217 --> 00:16:46.802 that other judges could be targeted. 00:16:46.885 --> 00:16:49.596 And they increased security on other judges 00:16:49.638 --> 00:16:51.724 and around Judge Cook's staff. 00:16:51.765 --> 00:16:54.601 This was unprecedented. 00:16:54.643 --> 00:16:57.563 This was very disturbing for the judges 00:16:57.604 --> 00:16:59.481 and for just the general safety 00:16:59.523 --> 00:17:01.400 of the courthouse complex. 00:17:01.400 --> 00:17:03.235 We were all very concerned. 00:17:03.318 --> 00:17:06.488 narrator: Investigators search through Judge Cook's 00:17:06.530 --> 00:17:08.323 past and present cases 00:17:08.365 --> 00:17:12.494 and find a chilling armed robbery looming on her docket. 00:17:14.204 --> 00:17:16.081 They discovered that one of the cases that she had had 00:17:16.081 --> 00:17:18.917 was a gentleman named Elijah Salahuddin. 00:17:20.377 --> 00:17:22.254 We knew that he was a very dangerous gentleman. 00:17:22.337 --> 00:17:24.923 He and his brother were involved in a murder. 00:17:25.007 --> 00:17:27.509 So you now got another family that could have been upset 00:17:27.551 --> 00:17:29.678 about something that the judge had done. 00:17:29.762 --> 00:17:32.097 Because she was a Superior Court judge, 00:17:32.097 --> 00:17:35.768 the type of crime I felt that we were dealing with 00:17:35.809 --> 00:17:36.894 was a hit. 00:17:47.362 --> 00:17:49.573 narrator: In October of 1996, 00:17:49.615 --> 00:17:53.744 the respected Superior Court Judge Josephine Holmes-Cook 00:17:53.786 --> 00:17:56.121 is found slain on the floor 00:17:56.163 --> 00:18:00.125 of her well-heeled Atlanta suburban home. 00:18:00.125 --> 00:18:03.462 Investigators have already checked out the alibis 00:18:03.462 --> 00:18:06.632 for the judge's husband and teenage son 00:18:06.632 --> 00:18:09.134 and now turn to her role as an elite member 00:18:09.134 --> 00:18:12.513 of the justice system in search of leads. 00:18:12.554 --> 00:18:14.473 At the time of her death, she was about to handle 00:18:14.515 --> 00:18:16.975 a major case involving 00:18:17.059 --> 00:18:18.852 a defendant who was a known gangster. 00:18:20.854 --> 00:18:23.148 Elijah Salahuddin was involved 00:18:23.232 --> 00:18:25.484 in an armed robbery, a home invasion. 00:18:25.526 --> 00:18:31.156 He was also later accused of a quadruple murder. 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:32.991 The Salahuddin case-- 00:18:32.991 --> 00:18:35.536 he and his brother had been involved 00:18:35.577 --> 00:18:37.496 in a card game here in the city of Atlanta. 00:18:37.538 --> 00:18:39.873 They ended up shooting, and four were people killed. 00:18:39.915 --> 00:18:43.460 narrator: Detectives question Salahuddin extensively, 00:18:43.502 --> 00:18:47.548 but he denies any involvement in Judge Cook's murder, 00:18:47.589 --> 00:18:49.800 so they compare his blood and fingerprints 00:18:49.842 --> 00:18:53.178 to evidence collected from the crime scene. 00:18:53.220 --> 00:18:55.973 It was revealed that there were no fingerprints 00:18:56.014 --> 00:18:58.684 found within the house that did not belong 00:18:58.725 --> 00:19:03.147 to either the judge or Raynard or the husband. 00:19:03.188 --> 00:19:04.648 As far as the blood, 00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:08.652 there was no sign whatsoever of any blood mixture 00:19:08.694 --> 00:19:10.821 that was anything other than the victim's, 00:19:10.863 --> 00:19:12.489 which was Judge Cook's. 00:19:12.531 --> 00:19:14.741 The police quickly decided 00:19:14.783 --> 00:19:17.619 that Salahuddin had nothing to do with her death. 00:19:19.288 --> 00:19:20.998 The medical examiner confirmed 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:24.459 that her official cause of death was exsanguination. 00:19:24.501 --> 00:19:26.044 She bled out. 00:19:26.128 --> 00:19:28.213 And it appeared to the medical examiner 00:19:28.297 --> 00:19:31.925 that the bullet had entered, diverted, 00:19:32.009 --> 00:19:36.054 came out right under the right armpit into the bicep, 00:19:36.138 --> 00:19:39.391 and then through a forearm, 00:19:39.433 --> 00:19:42.811 which would lead to the position of having 00:19:42.895 --> 00:19:46.857 either your hand up like this or close to it, 00:19:46.899 --> 00:19:48.817 probably up near the head. 00:19:48.859 --> 00:19:52.070 narrator: The ME's report suggests she was lying in bed 00:19:52.070 --> 00:19:56.158 with her back to the assailant on the morning she was shot. 00:19:56.241 --> 00:19:58.744 She would have almost instantly 00:19:58.827 --> 00:20:01.997 began to really suffer. 00:20:02.080 --> 00:20:06.084 And she would have literally died a slow, 00:20:06.126 --> 00:20:12.007 painful, and undignified death 00:20:12.090 --> 00:20:13.842 on the first floor of her own house. 00:20:13.884 --> 00:20:17.179 narrator: The report does not specify a time of death, 00:20:17.262 --> 00:20:19.681 meaning the timeline the morning she was killed 00:20:19.723 --> 00:20:22.601 and potential alibis remain in question. 00:20:26.647 --> 00:20:29.650 It's something those close to the case are mindful of 00:20:29.733 --> 00:20:32.778 as the honorable Judge Josephine Holmes-Cook 00:20:32.861 --> 00:20:34.446 is laid to rest. 00:20:34.488 --> 00:20:37.449 The day of the funeral was certainly eventful. 00:20:37.491 --> 00:20:40.285 The day started out at the house. 00:20:40.327 --> 00:20:44.122 I led the procession from the house to the church. 00:20:44.164 --> 00:20:45.999 The church was packed. 00:20:46.041 --> 00:20:48.460 I mean, it was absolutely packed. 00:20:48.502 --> 00:20:51.505 Her colleagues on the bench were all there. 00:20:51.546 --> 00:20:53.548 Her sorority sisters were there. 00:20:56.927 --> 00:21:00.222 It was pretty tragic. 00:21:00.264 --> 00:21:02.557 It was just hard to get past. 00:21:02.599 --> 00:21:06.061 Our relationship and the activities I saw her in 00:21:06.144 --> 00:21:08.397 came from a place of great sincerity. 00:21:08.438 --> 00:21:11.149 Her commitment to her church 00:21:11.191 --> 00:21:12.734 and to everything going on there 00:21:12.776 --> 00:21:16.363 was clearly driven by just her own faith, 00:21:16.446 --> 00:21:19.032 and it always came from a place of love. 00:21:22.369 --> 00:21:25.455 When I meet Raynard, Judge Cook's son, 00:21:25.497 --> 00:21:30.836 the first time I see him is as a grieving son. 00:21:31.253 --> 00:21:35.966 For me, I didn't see the depth of grief at the funeral 00:21:36.008 --> 00:21:38.302 that I would have expected of a child 00:21:38.385 --> 00:21:40.971 who was grieving for his mother. 00:21:41.013 --> 00:21:43.473 It just raises questions. 00:21:44.474 --> 00:21:46.727 narrator: Suspicious of Raynard's behavior, 00:21:46.727 --> 00:21:49.396 detectives reach out to the judge's friends, 00:21:49.438 --> 00:21:52.899 asking about her relationship with her son. 00:21:54.443 --> 00:21:57.029 I got a call from the police. 00:21:57.070 --> 00:21:58.905 Essentially, the questions were around 00:21:58.947 --> 00:22:00.407 whether or not there was something she said 00:22:00.490 --> 00:22:03.243 that would have even suggested there was-- 00:22:03.243 --> 00:22:05.704 that her safety-- that she was at risk. 00:22:07.873 --> 00:22:11.084 I did share with them that she had come to me saying, 00:22:11.084 --> 00:22:13.545 "I'm really concerned about my son." 00:22:13.587 --> 00:22:16.631 She was concerned that he would go out there 00:22:16.673 --> 00:22:17.924 and do something stupid. 00:22:17.966 --> 00:22:19.468 And that was her biggest concern, 00:22:19.551 --> 00:22:22.596 is for him and what he could get into 00:22:22.596 --> 00:22:24.973 because that seemed to be becoming 00:22:25.015 --> 00:22:26.308 more and more of his pattern. 00:22:26.391 --> 00:22:29.269 He got into selling pot. 00:22:29.269 --> 00:22:33.440 He was wanting to be a gangster. 00:22:33.482 --> 00:22:38.612 He wanted to go into a life that he did not grow up in. 00:22:39.738 --> 00:22:42.824 As police began to interview more and more people, 00:22:42.908 --> 00:22:43.992 in their minds, they kind of said, 00:22:44.034 --> 00:22:45.952 "Let's take a good look at him again." 00:22:45.994 --> 00:22:49.456 We asked Mr. Cook-- Mr. Ruben Cook, 00:22:49.498 --> 00:22:52.584 who was the father of Raynard, would they bring him in, 00:22:52.626 --> 00:22:55.212 we wanted to speak to him again. 00:22:55.253 --> 00:22:57.631 Raynard came in with his father and his uncle. 00:22:57.672 --> 00:22:59.508 They were all sitting up in the lobby. 00:22:59.549 --> 00:23:01.385 We had Raynard back in the back, 00:23:01.426 --> 00:23:04.388 and that gave us an opportunity to speak to him again-- 00:23:04.429 --> 00:23:07.307 for him to clear this up, when he came in the house. 00:23:49.683 --> 00:23:52.853 narrator: Raynard Cook's account of his mother's death 00:23:52.936 --> 00:23:55.021 is heart-wrenching. 00:23:55.063 --> 00:23:57.023 But the narrative takes a major turn 00:23:57.065 --> 00:23:58.525 when the neighbor is asked 00:23:58.567 --> 00:24:02.237 to confirm Raynard's latest version of his story. 00:24:02.320 --> 00:24:05.740 She said to me, "Raynard came to my house." 00:24:05.782 --> 00:24:09.786 She calls 911, and she tells Raynard to come inside 00:24:09.828 --> 00:24:11.621 and to have a seat. 00:24:11.663 --> 00:24:15.667 And all her furniture is white and her carpet is white. 00:24:15.709 --> 00:24:19.546 Now, Raynard Cook said that he actually knelt down 00:24:19.546 --> 00:24:25.010 on the floor and cradled her in his arms like a baby. 00:24:25.051 --> 00:24:30.724 She said, "If I had seen one speck of blood on him, 00:24:30.724 --> 00:24:34.060 he would not have been sitting on my couch." 00:24:34.102 --> 00:24:40.275 And so we knew that Raynard was lying. 00:24:45.280 --> 00:24:48.408 He had bought a Glock 9-millimeter, 00:24:48.450 --> 00:24:52.579 exactly the make and exactly the caliber 00:24:52.621 --> 00:24:55.749 that was the murder weapon of Judge Cook. 00:24:55.790 --> 00:24:59.878 Raynard told me that he'd had a gun that didn't work. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:02.547 It was useless to him, so he threw it away. 00:25:02.589 --> 00:25:04.508 There was intense pressure 00:25:04.549 --> 00:25:07.677 that he stay in that posture of innocence. 00:25:07.719 --> 00:25:11.598 He was pretty confident and arrogant. 00:25:11.681 --> 00:25:15.644 He acted like he was smarter than everybody else. 00:25:25.153 --> 00:25:27.197 narrator: In Fulton County, Georgia, 00:25:27.280 --> 00:25:29.449 homicide detectives investigating the murder 00:25:29.491 --> 00:25:32.869 of Superior Court Judge Josephine Holmes-Cook 00:25:32.911 --> 00:25:34.955 have locked on to discrepancies 00:25:34.996 --> 00:25:36.248 between the statements 00:25:36.289 --> 00:25:38.792 of the victim's 17-year-old son, Raynard, 00:25:38.875 --> 00:25:40.961 and his next-door neighbor. 00:25:41.002 --> 00:25:44.589 Raynard Cook said that he discovered his mother's body, 00:25:44.631 --> 00:25:47.217 cradled her in his arms like a baby. 00:25:53.181 --> 00:25:55.767 But the neighbor noticed that at the time, 00:25:55.809 --> 00:26:00.313 Raynard Cook did not have one single speck 00:26:00.397 --> 00:26:04.943 of his mother's blood anywhere on his body. 00:26:04.985 --> 00:26:08.154 narrator: As suspicions swirl around Raynard, 00:26:08.154 --> 00:26:11.157 detectives hold him at the station for questioning 00:26:11.199 --> 00:26:14.327 while they quickly work to uncover any physical evidence 00:26:14.411 --> 00:26:17.330 that could connect him to the crime. 00:26:17.414 --> 00:26:19.666 During any homicide investigation, 00:26:19.749 --> 00:26:22.669 one of the key pieces of evidence 00:26:22.711 --> 00:26:26.047 to bring a murder charge to trial 00:26:26.089 --> 00:26:28.842 is not just the cause of the death 00:26:28.842 --> 00:26:30.844 but the implement of death. 00:26:30.844 --> 00:26:34.264 And in the case of the Judge, 00:26:34.347 --> 00:26:37.684 we had a projectile that the crime lab 00:26:37.767 --> 00:26:40.520 said was the cause of death. 00:26:40.520 --> 00:26:43.148 We also had a shell casing. 00:26:43.189 --> 00:26:46.276 Both the projectile and the shell casing 00:26:46.359 --> 00:26:49.863 can be forensically matched up to a specific firearm. 00:26:49.946 --> 00:26:52.282 It was in fact a Glock 00:26:52.365 --> 00:26:56.119 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun. 00:26:56.161 --> 00:26:58.538 narrator: A semiautomatic handgun 00:26:58.538 --> 00:27:01.499 is not something detectives would expect to find 00:27:01.541 --> 00:27:03.877 on a student at Woodward Academy, 00:27:03.918 --> 00:27:06.379 no matter how problematic he may be. 00:27:06.463 --> 00:27:10.342 Nonetheless, detectives ask some of Raynard's schoolmates 00:27:10.383 --> 00:27:13.762 about their friend and the gun. 00:27:13.803 --> 00:27:17.390 During that time, I was interviewing Raynard, 00:27:17.390 --> 00:27:20.393 and other detectives were interviewing his friends 00:27:20.477 --> 00:27:22.228 in another room. 00:27:22.270 --> 00:27:24.564 A couple of close friends of Raynard's 00:27:24.564 --> 00:27:26.941 came by to be interviewed. 00:27:26.983 --> 00:27:30.111 One of his friends was named Damon. 00:27:30.153 --> 00:27:33.698 Damon related to us that 00:27:33.740 --> 00:27:40.330 Raynard did purchase a handgun for $150 00:27:40.413 --> 00:27:45.377 within two weeks of the Judge's murder. 00:27:45.418 --> 00:27:47.420 And he stated that the gun Raynard bought 00:27:47.420 --> 00:27:49.506 was a Glock 9-millimeter... 00:27:52.592 --> 00:27:56.596 Exactly the make and exactly the caliber that 00:27:56.596 --> 00:27:59.307 the crime lab had determined was the murder weapon 00:27:59.349 --> 00:28:04.270 in the killing of Raynard's mother, Judge Cook. 00:28:06.147 --> 00:28:10.068 Damon also told us that Raynard complained 00:28:10.110 --> 00:28:12.445 that the trigger doesn't work properly. 00:28:12.529 --> 00:28:14.614 So Raynard and Damon 00:28:14.614 --> 00:28:19.452 go to a gun shop in East Point, 00:28:19.536 --> 00:28:24.332 and they're told to go home and lubricate it. 00:28:24.416 --> 00:28:27.752 narrator: Playing one interview against the other, 00:28:27.794 --> 00:28:30.505 detectives exploit a piece of information 00:28:30.588 --> 00:28:33.633 that can potentially close their case. 00:28:37.053 --> 00:28:38.471 I was interviewing Raynard, 00:28:38.471 --> 00:28:40.598 and one of the detectives came to me 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:42.934 and asked me to step out for a second, 00:28:42.976 --> 00:28:45.812 and he said, "We got the gun in Raynard's hand." 00:28:48.231 --> 00:28:52.819 At that time, the family heard this. 00:29:00.493 --> 00:29:02.454 narrator: Concerned that Raynard's family 00:29:02.495 --> 00:29:04.497 will try to impede the interrogation, 00:29:04.581 --> 00:29:07.083 Detective Johnson wastes little time 00:29:07.167 --> 00:29:10.003 turning up the pressure on his suspect. 00:29:47.540 --> 00:29:51.503 Raynard told me that he'd had a gun that didn't work, 00:29:51.544 --> 00:29:54.339 and it was useless to him, so he threw it away. 00:30:22.617 --> 00:30:24.786 And then when they said, "Okay, well, take us 00:30:24.828 --> 00:30:26.246 "to where you threw the gun. We can go get it. 00:30:26.246 --> 00:30:28.164 "We can send it out and have it tested and, pssht, 00:30:28.248 --> 00:30:30.375 you'd be in the clear if you give us the gun." 00:30:30.416 --> 00:30:33.837 And he says, "I don't have time to do it today." 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:36.548 narrator: Just as Detective Johnson feels he's got 00:30:36.589 --> 00:30:38.633 Raynard backed into a corner, 00:30:38.675 --> 00:30:42.804 he's interrupted once again by a knock on the door. 00:30:49.477 --> 00:30:51.104 We had gotten him to the point 00:30:51.145 --> 00:30:53.439 where he had almost confessed to the crime. 00:30:53.439 --> 00:30:55.483 And that's when the family decided 00:30:55.567 --> 00:30:57.944 to stop the interview at that time. 00:30:57.986 --> 00:31:00.530 They decided to stop the interview. 00:31:00.613 --> 00:31:03.032 That was the closest he came to saying 00:31:03.074 --> 00:31:05.535 that he actually shot his mother. 00:31:15.670 --> 00:31:18.965 narrator: In the murder of Atlanta Judge Josephine Cook, 00:31:19.048 --> 00:31:22.635 detectives have zeroed in on her 17-year-old son, 00:31:22.635 --> 00:31:25.805 Raynard, as their prime suspect. 00:31:36.900 --> 00:31:40.153 Raynard has already admitted to owning a gun 00:31:40.194 --> 00:31:42.739 identical to the one that killed his mother. 00:31:42.780 --> 00:31:45.617 But just when he's on the verge of coming clean, 00:31:45.658 --> 00:31:48.703 his family moves in to shut it all down. 00:31:48.745 --> 00:31:50.496 They took Raynard and said 00:31:50.538 --> 00:31:52.749 that they was wanting him to go talk to an attorney, 00:31:52.790 --> 00:31:55.585 and at that time, we let him walk out. 00:31:56.628 --> 00:31:58.004 We thought we had enough probable cause 00:31:58.046 --> 00:31:59.505 to make an arrest. 00:31:59.547 --> 00:32:03.009 So we went to the judge and got an arrest warrant. 00:32:03.092 --> 00:32:07.263 And the next morning we went to sit 00:32:07.305 --> 00:32:09.599 and did a surveillance of the house, 00:32:09.682 --> 00:32:12.560 and we saw the father, the uncle, 00:32:12.602 --> 00:32:15.855 and Raynard leave the residence in a car. 00:32:15.897 --> 00:32:18.024 At that time, we pulled the car over 00:32:18.107 --> 00:32:19.776 as a traffic stop. 00:32:19.859 --> 00:32:22.737 And the uncle got out of the car, and he said, 00:32:22.779 --> 00:32:24.030 "Detective Johnson, do you have 00:32:24.113 --> 00:32:26.199 an arrest warrant for Raynard?" 00:32:26.282 --> 00:32:28.576 I said, "Yes, I do." 00:32:28.618 --> 00:32:30.370 And the uncle asked me, 00:32:30.411 --> 00:32:33.414 "Will you allow us to go down to see an attorney?" 00:32:33.498 --> 00:32:34.916 And I told them, 00:32:34.958 --> 00:32:38.044 "We ask you to bring Raynard in at 2:00 p.m." 00:32:38.086 --> 00:32:40.964 narrator: Raynard's uncle then tells Detective Johnson 00:32:41.047 --> 00:32:43.299 that Raynard has something important 00:32:43.341 --> 00:32:45.343 he needs to share with police. 00:32:45.385 --> 00:32:47.971 He said, "Well, Raynard told us last night 00:32:48.054 --> 00:32:52.350 that a masked man forced him to shoot his mother." 00:32:52.392 --> 00:32:56.396 But he never did identify the intruder. 00:32:56.396 --> 00:33:00.149 He just said it was a masked man. 00:33:00.191 --> 00:33:04.904 A masked man, at the point of a gun, 00:33:04.988 --> 00:33:09.409 forced him to shoot his mother in the head. 00:33:09.450 --> 00:33:13.955 That absolutely made no logical sense. 00:33:14.038 --> 00:33:17.250 One is you would've said that immediately. 00:33:17.250 --> 00:33:19.919 You'd have run screaming that to your next-door neighbor. 00:33:19.961 --> 00:33:21.963 So you would've screamed it out to the police. 00:33:22.046 --> 00:33:23.756 You would've asked for protection. 00:33:23.756 --> 00:33:26.092 None of that made any sense. 00:33:26.092 --> 00:33:29.679 narrator: Despite this new scenario presented by Raynard, 00:33:29.762 --> 00:33:31.931 detectives arrest the 17-year-old 00:33:31.973 --> 00:33:34.684 as he arrives at the station. 00:33:34.767 --> 00:33:37.270 Raynard Cook was charged in the indictment 00:33:37.270 --> 00:33:39.689 with four individual things. 00:33:39.731 --> 00:33:43.443 He was charged with malice murder, 00:33:43.526 --> 00:33:47.572 which is a deliberately intended act 00:33:47.613 --> 00:33:50.908 designed to cause the death of another person. 00:33:50.950 --> 00:33:53.411 Count two in the indictment charged Raynard Cook 00:33:53.453 --> 00:33:55.788 with felony murder, 00:33:55.830 --> 00:33:58.624 which simply means that during the commission of a felony, 00:33:58.666 --> 00:34:01.252 you caused the death of another person. 00:34:01.294 --> 00:34:03.755 He was also charged with aggravated assault 00:34:03.796 --> 00:34:05.131 for shooting his mother. 00:34:05.173 --> 00:34:07.800 And count four, being in possession of a firearm 00:34:07.884 --> 00:34:09.969 during the commission of a crime. 00:34:10.053 --> 00:34:13.723 narrator: Finally, 19 months after making the arrest, 00:34:13.806 --> 00:34:16.309 the prosecution is prepared to face off 00:34:16.309 --> 00:34:19.312 against Raynard Cook and his family. 00:34:21.898 --> 00:34:23.149 The family of the victim 00:34:23.232 --> 00:34:25.735 was also the family of the defendant. 00:34:25.818 --> 00:34:29.155 And there was a lot of emotional conflict there. 00:34:29.238 --> 00:34:32.992 The family of the defendant never dreamed, 00:34:32.992 --> 00:34:37.330 never believed that he killed his mother. 00:34:37.413 --> 00:34:38.831 He maintained his innocence. 00:34:38.873 --> 00:34:42.043 There was intense pressure from his family 00:34:42.126 --> 00:34:46.214 that he stay in that posture of innocence. 00:34:46.255 --> 00:34:49.467 narrator: The prosecution makes a compelling argument 00:34:49.509 --> 00:34:51.761 affirming the unthinkable. 00:34:51.803 --> 00:34:54.931 Raynard Cook murdered his own mother 00:34:54.972 --> 00:34:57.892 in an act of rebellion and rage. 00:34:57.934 --> 00:35:00.561 The evidence pointed at one person 00:35:00.603 --> 00:35:03.981 and one person only who would have had the motive, 00:35:04.023 --> 00:35:08.027 the means, and the opportunity to kill Judge Cook. 00:35:08.027 --> 00:35:10.279 And we literally conducted 00:35:10.321 --> 00:35:13.533 probably close to 200 interviews. 00:35:13.533 --> 00:35:15.618 And so our theory of the case 00:35:15.701 --> 00:35:21.582 is that there was a very violent confrontation 00:35:21.624 --> 00:35:24.377 on the evening of October the 15th 00:35:24.377 --> 00:35:28.339 at the house between Raynard Cook and his mother. 00:35:28.381 --> 00:35:33.386 Judge Cook had forced entry into the bedroom of her son. 00:35:33.386 --> 00:35:36.764 She had discovered this shoebox 00:35:36.806 --> 00:35:39.225 that contained marijuana. 00:35:39.308 --> 00:35:41.978 And we believe that during this confrontation, 00:35:42.061 --> 00:35:44.772 Judge Cook threatened to have her son arrested 00:35:44.814 --> 00:35:46.816 and taken into custody 00:35:46.899 --> 00:35:49.235 and to have those drugs removed from her house 00:35:49.235 --> 00:35:52.989 so that she would not suffer the public condemnation 00:35:53.030 --> 00:35:56.033 and the public embarrassment of having a drug dealer 00:35:56.075 --> 00:35:59.036 actually living under her roof. 00:35:59.078 --> 00:36:02.206 We believe Raynard was determined 00:36:02.248 --> 00:36:04.250 not to allow this to happen. 00:36:04.292 --> 00:36:09.088 He was determined to live this life of a gangster. 00:36:09.172 --> 00:36:12.258 He would have confronted her in her bedroom 00:36:12.300 --> 00:36:15.052 with a 9-millimeter handgun. 00:36:15.094 --> 00:36:17.180 And while her back was turned, 00:36:17.221 --> 00:36:20.308 he would have shot her one time in the back. 00:36:26.147 --> 00:36:28.399 narrator: Prosecutors conclude Raynard 00:36:28.441 --> 00:36:30.443 watched his mother struggle to survive, 00:36:30.526 --> 00:36:35.281 tearing out the phone cord as she attempted to call 911. 00:36:35.364 --> 00:36:37.408 He then waited as she collapsed 00:36:37.450 --> 00:36:40.661 and bled to death before heading to school. 00:36:44.957 --> 00:36:47.126 As Cook's defense team 00:36:47.168 --> 00:36:49.337 takes their turn to present their case, 00:36:49.420 --> 00:36:53.758 Raynard decides he'd make his own best witness. 00:36:53.799 --> 00:36:56.969 Raynard was *y when he testified. 00:36:57.011 --> 00:36:59.597 By the time he went to trial, he was 19. 00:36:59.639 --> 00:37:02.308 He was still a teenager. 00:37:02.350 --> 00:37:05.853 And he was a teenager who thought he knew everything. 00:37:05.937 --> 00:37:08.606 The prosecutor-- the name was Oculumberry, 00:37:08.648 --> 00:37:11.442 and he referred to her one time as Huckleberry. 00:37:11.484 --> 00:37:13.861 She would ask a question, and he would say things like, 00:37:13.945 --> 00:37:15.988 "What's your point?" 00:37:15.988 --> 00:37:19.325 He was pretty confident and arrogant. 00:37:19.367 --> 00:37:24.455 He acted like he was smarter than everybody else. 00:37:24.497 --> 00:37:26.916 We had been in trial for about two weeks. 00:37:26.999 --> 00:37:31.128 Both sides had delivered really passionate closing arguments 00:37:31.170 --> 00:37:34.924 to the jury arguing our respective sides. 00:37:35.007 --> 00:37:37.551 Jury deliberations went one day, 00:37:37.593 --> 00:37:39.011 it went two days, 00:37:39.053 --> 00:37:42.723 in which the jury was contemplating 00:37:42.765 --> 00:37:45.184 the fate of Raynard Cook. 00:37:45.226 --> 00:37:50.022 In fact, it started to approach about 20 hours. 00:37:50.022 --> 00:37:52.900 We were approached by his defense attorney, 00:37:52.942 --> 00:37:57.905 who asked whether or not there was a possibility 00:37:57.947 --> 00:38:01.534 that a deal could be struck. 00:38:01.534 --> 00:38:05.413 He chose his family over the truth. 00:38:14.672 --> 00:38:17.091 narrator: In the spring of 1998, 00:38:17.174 --> 00:38:20.678 Raynard Cook is on trial for killing his mother 00:38:20.720 --> 00:38:22.638 in the same Fulton County court 00:38:22.680 --> 00:38:25.433 where she'd served as a judge. 00:38:25.474 --> 00:38:27.184 The jury's extended deliberation 00:38:27.226 --> 00:38:30.062 has scared both prosecution and defense 00:38:30.062 --> 00:38:32.481 into making a deal. 00:38:32.523 --> 00:38:34.817 Both sides sat down at the table 00:38:34.900 --> 00:38:39.071 and negotiated a possible resolution to the case 00:38:39.113 --> 00:38:43.659 that would require Raynard Cook to admit publicly 00:38:43.701 --> 00:38:46.871 that he actually shot and killed his mother. 00:38:46.912 --> 00:38:48.998 narrator: If Raynard confesses, 00:38:49.081 --> 00:38:52.251 he'll face a reduced charge of manslaughter 00:38:52.251 --> 00:38:55.421 and a maximum sentence of 20 years. 00:38:55.504 --> 00:38:58.007 And with that 20-year sentence, 00:38:58.090 --> 00:39:04.305 we would require him to serve only a short amount of time-- 00:39:04.347 --> 00:39:08.809 less than a year-- actually in custody, in jail, 00:39:08.893 --> 00:39:12.355 with the condition that he would perform 00:39:12.396 --> 00:39:15.858 various forms of counseling. 00:39:15.941 --> 00:39:18.361 The deal was very generous. 00:39:18.402 --> 00:39:21.864 But there was incredible pressure on him from the family 00:39:21.947 --> 00:39:23.866 not to place himself in a position 00:39:23.949 --> 00:39:25.493 that would further embarrass the family. 00:39:25.534 --> 00:39:28.537 narrator: Raynard turns to his loved ones for guidance 00:39:28.579 --> 00:39:31.874 and finds himself in a lion's den. 00:39:31.957 --> 00:39:34.251 They had him in a prayer circle in the hallway. 00:39:34.293 --> 00:39:35.961 They had him surrounded. He was in the middle. 00:39:36.003 --> 00:39:37.922 Raynard's grandmother, his uncle, 00:39:37.963 --> 00:39:41.258 they all said if you plead guilty, 00:39:41.300 --> 00:39:43.010 you're dead to us. 00:39:43.094 --> 00:39:45.096 You're not a member of this family. 00:39:45.137 --> 00:39:47.098 They just were not having it. 00:39:47.139 --> 00:39:50.309 If he confessed to killing his mother, they would disown him. 00:39:50.351 --> 00:39:52.311 And so that was the pressure 00:39:52.311 --> 00:39:54.480 that was on Raynard at that point. 00:39:54.563 --> 00:39:56.649 They talked him out of it. 00:39:56.732 --> 00:39:59.652 So he decided to leave it up to the jury. 00:39:59.652 --> 00:40:02.488 narrator: Thirty minutes later, 00:40:02.488 --> 00:40:04.824 the jury speaks with the fate 00:40:04.865 --> 00:40:07.076 of the judge's son on the line. 00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:09.703 Raynard Cook was charged in the indictment 00:40:09.745 --> 00:40:12.373 with four individual things. 00:40:12.456 --> 00:40:15.751 So Judge McConnell read the verdict. 00:40:15.793 --> 00:40:18.838 In count one, he very dramatically said, 00:40:18.879 --> 00:40:23.300 "We, the jury, find the defendant, Raynard Cook, 00:40:23.342 --> 00:40:26.929 not guilty of malice murder." 00:40:26.971 --> 00:40:31.392 There was this loud, audible cheer 00:40:31.434 --> 00:40:34.019 from the family of Raynard Cook. 00:40:36.105 --> 00:40:38.357 They thought that since the jury had decided 00:40:38.399 --> 00:40:41.277 to acquit him of the more serious charge 00:40:41.318 --> 00:40:42.820 that maybe he had a chance. 00:40:42.862 --> 00:40:44.697 But, you know, in these cases, 00:40:44.738 --> 00:40:47.616 it's not over until it's over. 00:40:47.700 --> 00:40:51.537 And so the judge read very dramatically, 00:40:51.537 --> 00:40:53.914 "In count two of the indictment, 00:40:53.998 --> 00:40:58.669 "we, the jury, find the defendant, Raynard Cook, 00:40:58.711 --> 00:41:03.799 guilty...of felony murder." 00:41:03.841 --> 00:41:06.844 narrator: Cries of betrayal and anger echo 00:41:06.886 --> 00:41:08.888 throughout the entire courthouse 00:41:08.929 --> 00:41:11.891 as the judge reads the rest of the verdict-- 00:41:11.932 --> 00:41:15.728 guilty on the remaining two counts. 00:41:15.728 --> 00:41:20.983 It was absolute chaos and pandemonium 00:41:21.025 --> 00:41:23.277 that erupted in the courtroom 00:41:23.319 --> 00:41:25.988 on the side that contained Raynard Cook's family. 00:41:26.030 --> 00:41:29.116 The grandmother rushed the railing. 00:41:29.158 --> 00:41:30.993 She had to be restrained. 00:41:31.035 --> 00:41:33.746 The grandmother's screaming, "No, no, no!" 00:41:33.787 --> 00:41:36.957 And Raynard's father is sitting there stunned. 00:41:37.041 --> 00:41:40.169 The judge immediately sentenced him 00:41:40.211 --> 00:41:45.758 to a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole, 00:41:45.758 --> 00:41:49.512 plus an additional five years. 00:41:49.595 --> 00:41:51.472 narrator: The city of Atlanta watches 00:41:51.514 --> 00:41:53.807 as 19-year-old Raynard Cook 00:41:53.891 --> 00:41:56.477 is cuffed and escorted from the courthouse 00:41:56.519 --> 00:42:00.272 to begin his sentence in state prison. 00:42:00.314 --> 00:42:03.192 We have to assume that he knew the truth. 00:42:03.275 --> 00:42:04.777 He knew what he had done. 00:42:04.777 --> 00:42:07.947 And yet, now he's really being called out about it. 00:42:07.988 --> 00:42:10.199 narrator: Colleagues and friends of Josephine 00:42:10.282 --> 00:42:13.202 will always hold her memory in a special place, 00:42:13.285 --> 00:42:16.205 never forgetting the tremendous impact 00:42:16.288 --> 00:42:17.957 she made on her community. 00:42:17.998 --> 00:42:21.502 It's a case that is an American tragedy. 00:42:21.585 --> 00:42:26.590 Here it is you have a woman who worked hard her whole life 00:42:26.632 --> 00:42:31.345 to achieve professional respectability, 00:42:31.387 --> 00:42:35.558 who tried to do the best she could to raise her only son. 00:42:35.641 --> 00:42:39.103 And she ended up losing her life 00:42:39.144 --> 00:42:42.398 in a very violent way. 00:42:43.732 --> 00:42:45.526 What do I miss about Judge Cook? 00:42:45.568 --> 00:42:45.734 I'd say her tenacity. Her tenacity. 00:42:45.734 --> 00:42:47.820 I'd say her tenacity. Her tenacity. 00:42:47.820 --> 00:42:50.823 This was a woman, like I said, I watched work very hard 00:42:50.823 --> 00:42:52.283 to win her first election. 00:42:52.324 --> 00:42:53.951 First election, second election, 00:42:53.993 --> 00:42:56.870 she put everything that she could into winning those races. 00:42:56.954 --> 00:42:59.373 And so I miss that about her. 00:43:01.959 --> 00:43:06.547 She was very visible, very active, and in charge. 00:43:06.630 --> 00:43:12.011 She was involved in mentoring, education, social services. 00:43:12.052 --> 00:43:15.389 She was always doing something. 00:43:15.431 --> 00:43:17.891 She was totally committed. 00:43:17.933 --> 00:43:20.686 And that's what I remember about Judge Cook.