Trial begins for Georgetown County mom accused of killing son in trailer fire
Moms are supposed to protect their children, they are supposed to worry, and prosecutors say Marissa Cohen did neither for her 12-year-old son.
“A mom is somebody who is supposed to be there for you,” Assistant Solicitor Liz Smith told a Georgetown County jury on Tuesday.
On March 29, 2014, Cohen’s 12-year-old son, Dave Sycience Coombs, went to a friend’s birthday party at the Andrews Recreation Center, Smith said. While Coombs partied, investigators say, Cohen planned with others to destroy the trailer in a money-making scheme.
“She was setting in motion a plan to burn down that trailer to collect an insurance policy of $25,000 that she had just bought the month before,” Smith said.
Hours later he was found dead after a blaze at a mobile home.
Cohen wore a purple blouse and glasses as she looked down, writing on a piece of paper as Smith gave an opening statement. The mother is on trial for arson, conspiracy and unlawful conduct of a child and faces more than 30 years in prison.
State’s opening
Dave Sycience Coombs — who was known by his middle name, which was pronounced “science” — was a good kid who everybody liked, Smith said.
His family moved out of the mobile home on March 29 and into a nearby apartment. His mother, Cohen, had put some items into storage, though some remained in the trailer. Around 7 p.m. that night, Sycience went to the party and left around 11.
Sycience left the party with his friend Ricky Nelson and the two made plans to stay at Nelson’s house. The Nelsons lived about a minute from Sycience’s trailer. Nelson’s mom agreed to let the two have a sleepover, but Syciecne went to get clothes from the trailer.
“He told me he was going to get clothes and never returned,” Nelson said from the witness stand. He was the first witness called by the state.
The blaze was reported around 1 a.m. and investigators found Sycience’s body inside the home. Despite the hour, Smith said Cohen didn’t look for her son. If she had, it would have been too late.
“Instead of frantically looking for her son, she was setting in motion a plan she devised,” Smith said.
Cohen conspired with Randy Collins to destroy the trailer for the insurance money, authorities said. Collins told police that Cohen offered him $5,000 of the $25,000 from the insurance policy if he set it ablaze. Collins told his nephew, James Miller, who later died, about the offer and both were at the trailer when Miller set it on fire, investigators say.
Cohen also bought kerosene on the day of the fire.
In April 2015, Devon Coombs, Dave Coombs’ older teenage brother, fatally shot Miller in Andrews. Devon Coombs pleaded guilty in 2017 to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
In 2018, a judge sentenced Collins to 30 years in prison for his role in the arson case.
When police told Cohen that Sycience was dead, she didn’t react as most mothers would, Smith said. Cohen laughed while she sat in a car and walked up and down the street talking on a cellphone.
“Acting as nothing is wrong,” Smith said.
Defense details case
“This is not a feel-good case,” Defense Attorney Besscena Wilson told the same jury. “There is no feel-good moment in this trial.”
Wilson raised the questions of reasonable doubt and said Andrews is a small town where people knew each other, she said.
“Everybody knew she was moving, everybody was helping her move,” Wilson said.
The presence of kerosene was used as a heat source, Wilson said. She added that Sycience disobeyed his mom on the night of the fire, though did not go into further detail in her opening. Cohen was not present when the trailer caught fire, her lawyer noted.
When news broke of Sycience’s death, Cohen acted like a “zombie.” Wilson said she doesn’t know how a person should react when being told their child is dead.
“I don’t know what normal behavior is in a situation like this,” she said.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 2:44 PM.
