Cowick death-penalty trial set for August
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The Darlington County Courthouse is expected to get its first death-penalty case in at least 10 years this summer when a local man stands trial in the killings of a Darlington woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter.
Cephas Cowick
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Cephas M. Cowick, who is charged in the 2016 slayings of Denise Couplin, 52, and her granddaughter Deziyah Davis, 9.
Cowick’s trial is expected to begin the week of Aug. 19, and three weeks of court time have been set aside for the case, said Darlington County Clerk of Court Scott Suggs.
Circuit Judge Thomas Russo is expected to preside over the trial, Suggs said.
Cowick’s wife, Katherine Baucom-Cowick, also faces two murder charges in the case, but she will be tried separately and no trial date has been set. Both were in their early 20s when they were arrested in the case.
Katherine Baucom-Cowick
The two victims were shot to death at their home off Bobo Newsome Highway in July 2016. The front door had been forced open and the home was “ransacked,” officials said. Couplin’s car was stolen and later found burned.
The death penalty is being sought in this case because of aggravating circumstances, including the fact that one victim was under 11 years old and more than one person was killed.
Darlington attorney James Scruggs is listed as Cephas Cowick’s lawyer, officials said, but Scruggs could not be reached for comment.
Cowick has been held in the Darlington County jail since he was booked July 18, 2016, according to online jail records.
Jail records indicate that no bond was ever set for nearly all of the offenses he is charged with, including two counts of murder, arson, criminal conspiracy, armed robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary, grand larceny, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and causing damage to the courthouse.
During a December 2017 hearing, 4th Circuit Deputy Solicitor Kernard Redmond argued successfully that Cowick should be denied bond.
“The seriousness of the crime in this situation, the state contends, would, in my mind, eliminate any right to this defendant to have a bond,” Redmond told Judge Russo, who was presiding at the hearing. “There are some very raw feelings regarding the nature of what transpired at Denise Couplin’s house.”
Russo told the court: “The possibility of being put to death — I think that raises the risk of flight beyond the capabilities that we have to secure someone’s presence for trial. … I’m going to respectfully deny the motion for bond.”
Jail records indicate that Cowick’s wife also is still in the county detention center, with no bond set for any of the charges she faces. Her charges are the same as her husband’s, but she is not accused of somehow damaging the courthouse.
Cowick and Baucom-Cowick both were named as defendants in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the mother of the child who was killed, according to local media reports. The suit also targeted the estate of Couplin, the girl’s grandmother. The suit said Couplin had “questionable involvement with illegal activity including drug use and associating with individuals who sold and used drugs, including Cephas Cowick and Katherine Baucom,” media reports said.