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Andrea Cobb
national
Pensacola woman guilty of shooting lover at church
Jury rejects insanity defense
Published Thursday, 22-May-2003 in issue 804
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A 62-year-old bank teller from Pensacola, Florida, has been convicted of attempted murder for shooting her estranged lesbian partner and another woman who tried to stop the attack in a church parking lot.
On May 14, a jury rejected Andrea Cobb’s claim she was insane on April 28, 2002, when she shot Joyce Anderson in the hand and Nancy Browning in the stomach. Anderson had recently ended their 14-year relationship. Browning is partly paralyzed from a bullet that lodged near her spine.
Cobb propped herself on a table and hung her head as the verdict was read. She faces a minimum sentence of 25 years to life on counts of attempted first- and second-degree murder. Circuit Judge Michael Jones set for sentencing June 10.
“I think justice has been served, and I’m feeling good about it,” Browning said. “I am a Christian person, and I believe what the Bible says. You’re supposed to forgive, and I did forgive her a long time ago, but I didn’t want her to walk away as if nothing happened.”
The shootings occurred after Cobb and Anderson exited the Holy Cross Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) after they had attended a Sunday service.
Browning, also a church member, stepped between the two women in a futile effort to prevent Cobb from shooting Anderson.
Jones dealt Cobb a setback when he refused to permit an intoxication defense. Her lawyer wanted to argue she had been deranged by prescription medications, including Xanax and Paxil, ordered by a doctor.
Assistant Public Defender Michael Van Cavage instead argued his client must have been insane because her behavior was so out of character.
“It was nuts for this woman to ever do something like that,” he told the jury.
Assistant State Attorney Ed Zeitlin argued it was simply a case of revenge because she had been rejected by her former lover.
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