Killer ejected from court after outburst
Cowell curses prosecutor, refuses to answer questions at his trial in Nia Wilson’s slaying
John Lee Cowell, the man who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity after stabbing 18yearold Nia Wilson to death on a BART station platform in Oakland two summers ago, lasted roughly 15 minutes on the witness stand Thursday in his second day of testimony.
Even before taking the stand, the 29yearold Cowell was combative. He refused to enter the Alameda County courtroom for more than an hour until being ordered inside by Judge Allan Hymer.
Prosecutor Butch Ford attempted to show Cowell video of the July 22, 2018, attack at BART’s MacArthur Station, which left Wilson and her sister, Letifah, suffering from stab wounds to the neck. Nia Wilson bled out on the platform and died.
Cowell refused to answer Ford’s questions by saying, “I don’t know what that is.” Hymer informed him it was a video of the killing, but the defendant maintained it was only a photo.
The testimony turned more combative when Cowell asked the prosecutor, “Are you saying that I’m not guilty or are you taking that back?”
Ford changed his line of questioning and Cowell said, “They should force your ass to answer the f— question.”
Cowell then began yelling, “Back the f— down,” as Ford passed the witness stand. Cowell then was escorted out of the courtroom by two deputies.
The second day of testimony by Cowell carried over from a chaotic day in court Tuesday, when the defendant sparred with Ford while also saying he thought the Wilson sisters — Nia, Letifah and Tashiya, the latter of whom was not attacked — were aliens on a BART train who had kidnapped his grandmother.
Saundra Ferriera, Cow
ell’s aunt, took the stand after her nephew’s exit, and she told the courtroom that his behavior was similar to that of his mother, who was consistently paranoid and in and out of mental institutions.
Ferriera said Cowell had a good relationship with his paternal grandmother, who essentially raised him. After she died, though, Cowell would constantly talk about how aliens were holding her hostage and wondered if he could do something about it.
“I really don’t think he accepted her death,” Ferriera said.
The aunt said Cowell’s behavior forced her to call the police on a number of occasions, and she had to get a restraining order against him. At one point, Ferriera said, Cowell called police himself because he believed someone was watching him and shooting into his aunt’s house. A SWAT team came and took him to a mental health ward, she said.
Cowell was convicted of seconddegree robbery in 2016, and he spent the latter part of his sentence in lockup at Atascadero State Hospital, an allmale psychiatric facility. After Cowell was released on parole in May 2018, Ferriera allowed him to stay at her house for a few days, she said. But she begged his parole officer to find him somewhere to get treatment.
Cowell became homeless after leaving Ferriera’s home, she said, adding that she attempted to call several rehabilitation facilities, but none had room available.
During a tense crossexamination, Ford repeatedly challenged Ferriera’s testimony, asking why she never mentioned Cowell’s fascination with aliens during a conversation with his defense team.
Ferriera said she didn’t think it was important at the time.
The defense later called to the stand forensic psychologist Jeremy Coles, who reviewed Cowell’s voluminous mental health history but never assessed the defendant in person because Cowell refused to meet.
Coles diagnosed Cowell as a schizophrenic paranoid type, characterized by hallucinations, delusions and a “thought process not in the realm of being real.” Coles said he saw over 100 examples of paranoid delusions in Cowell’s files.
Ford challenged this diagnosis in his crossexamination, and asked the witness whether Cowell’s actions just before and after the attack — like changing clothes and tossing his knife into a construction zone — suggested “goaloriented behavior.” Coles said they did.
While testifying Tuesday, Cowell said the Wilson sisters didn’t have a “permit” to stand over him on the BART train the day of the attack. 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.
In addition to murder and attempted murder charges, Cowell also faces a specialcircumstance charge of lying in wait.
Police said he 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. He was taken into custody a day later at BART’s Pleasant Hill Station.
There are two phases of a trial when a defendant pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. If Cowell is found not guilty during this first stage, the trial ends and he goes free.
If he’s found guilty, the same jury will weigh arguments more specific to mental illness in order to determine if Cowell was mentally incapable of knowing or understanding what he was doing at the time of the crime.
The trial resumes Tuesday.