Nia Wilson’s killer makes bizarre claims
Cowell says victim, sisters kidnapped his grandmother
The man accused of murdering Nia Wilson on a BART station platform in 2018 admitted to the brazen double stabbing in court Tuesday, but he said he believed Wilson and her sisters were aliens and part of a gang that had kidnapped his grandmother.
“I stabbed both of the females in the crew, because I believed they would not give my grandmother back,” John Lee Cowell said from the witness stand in Alameda County court.
The 29yearold’s testimony ranged from incoherent — at one point, he launched into a tangent about aliens, radios
and “fake skin” — to confusion over how to answer his attorney’s questions. Cowell said he has a history of mental illness and heard voices in his head, but he could not remember what those voices told him.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Cowell’s testimony grew increasingly jumbled and then combative under crossexamination by prosecutor Butch Ford, who worked to poke holes in Cowell’s rationale for the attack. Ford accused the defendant of “putting on a show.”
By the end of the day, Cowell refused to provide coherent answers to any of Ford’s questions, calling the prosecutor “rude.”
“I can’t do anything for you now,” Cowell said repeatedly, before Judge Allan Hymer dismissed the jury for the day.
Just before the fatal stabbing on July 22, 2018, Cowell rode the same train from Concord to the MacArthur Station in Oakland as Nia Wilson, 18, and her two sisters.
During direct examination, Cowell said that the three Wilson sisters didn’t have a “permit” to stand over him on the BART train. He spoke about a radio in his head and said the three women were “pointing to other passengers while staring at me.”
He added that he felt “threatened by three black females. They were together ... threatening to assault my grandmother.”
Surveillance footage of the entire 25minute ride shows no interaction between Cowell or any of the sisters.
Cowell is charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder for the double stabbing that left Nia Wilson dead and her sister Letifah seriously injured.
Police and prosecutors said the knife attack was unprovoked, while friends and family members of Nia Wilson have said they believe the attack was motivated by the women’s race. The Wilson sisters are black, and Cowell is white.
Cowell testified that about a week before the train ride with the Wilson sisters, he had been punched in the face by a black female.
“I don’t think it’s illegal to save or rescue family members,” he said.
At several points Tuesday, Cowell’s attorney, Christina Moore, asked him if he remembered specific dates when he sought treatment or told mental health providers that he was hearing voices.
In most of his answers, Cowell, who was not handcuffed but was seated next to a deputy in the witness stand, said he did not remember the incidents — even when Moore provided him his own health records to review. In one instance, he told Moore there were no words on the piece of paper she handed him.
Prosecutor Ford advised Wilson’s family and friends on Tuesday to resist making comments in response to Cowell’s testimony.
During crossexamination, Ford pounced on Cowell’s mention of the sisters’ race, specifically asking the defendant if he stabbed the women because they were black females.
Like many of his responses, Cowell did not provide a rational answer. He seemed to suggest that he was not responsible for their behavior, and he said it was unfair that he was a defendant.
Ford later asked if it was true that Cowell attempted to pick a fight with another black female on a bus just after the stabbing.
Reading from what he said was a transcript of footage from the bus ride, Ford asked Cowell if he told the woman, “You’re trying to throw something on me, you little n—?”
Several people in the spectator gallery gasped at the racial slur, and Moore objected, saying the statement was never introduced into evidence and was inaccurate.
“That’s being fabricated by Mr. Ford,” Moore said, before calling for a sidebar with Ford and Judge Allan Hymer. Yelling from outside the courtroom could be heard before Hymer returned and called for a lunch recess.
Ford later introduced a tough line of questioning, and asked Cowell if he recalled his alleged neardaily drug use, or telling clinicians he would act crazy to win a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict.
“Is that what you’re doing today, sir?” Ford said. “Trying to look crazy?”
Ford asked Cowell that if he believed attacking the sisters was the “right thing to do,” why did he scope out an escape route? And if Cowell believed the three sisters were a threat, why didn’t he chase after a third sister, Tashiya, who was already on the train?
To these and most of Ford’s questions, Cowell stated that he couldn’t recall.
On Monday, Nia Wilson’s sisters, Tashiya and Letifah, recalled the horrific moments after the stabbing as their little sister bled out on the train platform.
“I looked at her like, ‘What’s going on?’ ” Tashiya Wilson, 22, told the courtroom through tears, adding that Nia was clutching her neck. “I just see blood on her hands.”
Police said Cowell pulled a hood over his head and put on sunglasses just before the attack. He also allegedly discarded his backpack and clothing in the station’s parking lot to avoid arrest, and he was taken into custody a day later at BART’s Pleasant Hill Station.
In addition to the murder and attempted murder charges, prosecutors filed a specialcircumstance charge of lying in wait.
The enhancement, disputed by defense attorneys, makes Cowell eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors could have sought the death penalty, but they announced in August they would not pursue capital punishment.