Driver convicted of manslaughter in parking lot

Coffey graduated from Pompano Beach High School in 2015. There, he had been captain of the school’s swim team.

Thrasher and Hecht testified in the morning. Thrasher said last week that

he hasn't decided when the suspension would be lifted. Florida State has concluded classes for the Fall Semester. Spring Semester classes will begin on Jan. 8.

Pi Kappa Phi closed the Florida State chapter shortly after Coffey's death.

Penn State and Louisiana State universities also suspended Greek activities

earlier this year due to student deaths, but Florida State's move triggered a bigger impact nationally. Since Florida State's announcement, Texas State, Ohio State and Michigan have also issued suspensions of Greek activities either due to a student's death or incidents involving fraternities and sororities.

During the suspension, the only events Greek life members can conduct are meetings with the university or their national chapter. Students are allowed to remain as residents in their fraternity or sorority houses. Thrasher also banned alcohol at all student organization events during the suspension.

A Broward jury found Lawton Cohen guilty late Tuesday of deliberately running over a woman in a parking lot outside a Pompano Beach grocery store in 2015.

The woman, Barbara “Bobbie” Sapp, 55, died at the scene. Cohen was convicted of manslaughter with a deadly weapon and attempted leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He faces a maximum of 45 years in prison.

The jury deliberated for five and a half hours before delivering its verdict.

Broward Circuit Judge Tim Bailey will schedule sentencing for January. Family members of the defendant and the victim will have the opportunity to address the court at that time.

Cohen is already serving a 10-year sentence in connection with an unrelated case.

“Without a doubt, this man knew he had run somebody over,” prosecutor Scott Strauss said in closing arguments Tuesday. He said the victim was seen leaning into the open window of Cohen’s Dodge Ram 1500 pickup and arguing with him outside Rocky’s Food Store on the 800 block of Hammondville Road on Nov. 22, 2014.

Quoting from Cohen’s statement to police, Strauss said the defendant “slammed in reverse, hit the gas real fast, slid it back through drive and took off.”

A witness told jurors that he heard Sapp yelling “Stop! Stop!” as Cohen pulled away. Surveillance video captured the incident, and Strauss pointed out where Sapp fell from the side of the Ram and the vehicle’s headlights bobbed as Sapp was apparently run over.

Defense lawyer Regina Tsombanakis said Cohen did not run the victim over — she was dragged in the vehicle’s undercarriage and Cohen had no idea anything had gone wrong until he was later questioned by detectives who came to arrest him, she said.

His responses indicated he had an innocent frame of mind, Tsombanakis said. Cohen did not ask for a lawyer, had not made any effort to clean blood off his truck and had not gone into hiding, she said.

Jurors were given no explanation for why Sapp might have been arguing with Cohen in the first place, though pre-trial evidence that was not shown to jurors indicated it was likely a drug deal.

Sapp, 55, was a mother of three, a grandmother of six, and a great grandmother of one at the time of her death.

Cohen was an ex-con who had served 15 years in state prison for a 1991 case involving sexual battery, strong-arm robbery and grand theft auto. He served another 18 months for a probation violation and had been arrested on a charge of false imprisonment.

Nine months before Sapp’s death, Cohen had been accused of injuring a Broward Sheriff’s deputy by ramming through a checkpoint at Port Everglades. Marijuana and a crack pipe were found in his vehicle, a dark gray Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck, according to an arrest report.

He was free on bond in that case when he encountered Sapp.

rolmeda@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4457, Twitter @SSCourts and @rolmeda