A 12-year-old died in a fire for insurance money, now his mom will spend decades in prison
A mom, whose 12-year-old died in a blaze started for insurance money, will spend at least three decades in prison.
A Georgetown County jury found Marissa Cohen guilty of first-degree arson, unlawful conduct towards a child and conspiracy. A judge sentenced Cohen to 35 years in prison, 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said.
Cohen will have to serve at least 85 percent of her sentence before she is eligible for parole.
The jury reached its verdict on Thursday after three days of testimony.
Dave Sycience Coombs, 12, died in the 2014 blaze outside of Andrews. Coombs once lived at the trailer, but moved before the fire.
Investigators say Cohen purchased renter’s insurance for the trailer a month before the fire and moved her items into storage. She also told friends there were electrical issues in the home. An anonymous tip reported Cohen bought kerosene the morning of the fire.
“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,” Assistant Solicitor Liz Smith said during her opening arguments.
Dave Sycience Coombs — who was known by his middle name, which was pronounced “science” — was a good kid who everybody liked, Smith said.
On the night of the fire he left a birthday party at the Andrews recreation center. His friend, Ricky Nelson, testified that Coombs was planning to spend the night at the Nelson’s home near Coomb’s old trailer home.
“He told me he was going to get clothes and never returned,” Nelson said.
Randy 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 about the offer and both were at the trailer when Miller set it on fire, investigators say.
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.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 8:55 PM.
