Published Friday, March 24, 2000 Defending Fuller against murder charges, Wayne Hundertmark questioned Ms. Cozart on her testimony that Fuller wanted to know if Lindsey Lowe hung out at the 575 Prindle St. house in Sharon, where Jeremy was killed. She also told a jury that Fuller told her he killed the boy.
Fuller, 24, of Farrell is on trial in Mercer County Judge Michael J. Wherry's courtroom on charges that he shot and killed the boy shortly before 1 a.m. May 29. Sharon police charged Fuller with first- and third-degree murder, burglary, possessing prohibited offensive weapons and instruments of crime. If convicted of first-degree murder, Fuller could be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
Ms. Cozart, who was a close friend of Fuller, said she was upset that Lowe implicated her in a Feb. 25, 1999, robbery of a North Irvine Avenue house for drugs and money. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy for driving the getaway car and agreed to cooperate with prosecuters.
Hundertmark noted she did not tell Sharon police in a June 1 interview that Fuller wanted to know where Lowe hung out. Ms. Cozart denied Hundertmark's claim that she brought up that detail only after agreeing to cooperate in exchange for immunity.
Hundertmark said she might have slipped up when she told police she had no idea what Fuller was up to. "No. I had no knowledge a little boy was going to get shot and killed. Nobody was going to get killed," Ms. Cozart told a police interviewer.
Hundertmark asked if she and her boyfriend, T.J. Green, planned to rob a drug dealer at the Prindle Street home. Ms. Cozart said, "No."
She told Assistant District Attorney Timothy R. Bonner she did not participate in Jeremy's murder and had no knowledge of a robbery at the boy's Prindle Street home.
Letesha Hubbard, Ms. Cozart's cousin, indicated Ms. Cozart and Green were in Farrell at the time of the murder in Sharon. Ms. Hubbard said Ms. Cozart was riding with her when a Southwest Mercer County Regional policeman pulled over her car for a vehicle registration violation. That was between 12:27 a.m. and 1 a.m. May 29, according to police records. After a 20-minute walk to Steel City housing development in Farrell, the women saw Green at a party, Ms. Hubbard testified.
On the night of May 28, Fuller gave Ms. Cozart and Ms. Hubbard $40, telling them to have a good time, Ms. Hubbard said.
The day after the murder, Ms. Cozart was "sick" when she heard of the shooting, Ms. Hubbard testified. She said Ms. Cozart had dropped off Lindsey Lowe at 575 Prindle St. the night of the Feb. 25, 1999 robbery, she said.
When Fuller told her he did what she was reading about in a newspaper the day after the murder, Ms. Cozart "was totally shocked," Ms. Hubbard testified.
Ms. Hubbard overheard Fuller tell Ms. Cozart, "I made that boy famous. I put him on TV and in the news. I left him in my favorite color -- red," Ms. Hubbard testified.
Fuller wore red because it was the color of the Bloods gang, she said. Fuller considered himself a Blood. He hated blue because that was the color of a rival gang, the Crips, Ms. Hubbard said.
Fuller told Tyler Coleman, who also was at the Steel City party, "I killed the Crab. Read the paper tomorrow," Coleman testified. "Crab" was a derogatory term for a member of the Crip gang, he said.
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