Marion Coscia had been worried about his son, New Hope resident Kenneth Coscia, for several weeks leading up to the day Kenneth Coscia shot two Lowndes County Sheriff’s deputies in 2014.
Kenneth Coscia, 35, had been talking about things like the Illuminati and the Book of Revelations and stocking up on food as though preparing for the end times, Marion said. He kept saying “they” were going to take his guns. He was reluctant to see a psychiatrist despite persistent attempts by family members to convince him to get medical help.
So when Kenneth Coscia shot two deputies who had arrived to check on him on March 18, 2014, it was exactly the type of scenario Marion had been trying to prevent, he told a courtroom full of law enforcement officers, attorneys and onlookers at his son’s sentencing hearing Friday.
Judge Lee Howard sentenced Kenneth Coscia to 50 years in Mississippi Department of Corrections. The week before, Coscia had pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. Two other charges, one of aggravated assault and one of shooting into a dwelling, were dismissed based on his plea.
Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Clemons said the case was heartbreaking and that it was frustrating that Howard couldn’t sentence Coscia to a long-term mental health facility. If a defendant is found competent to stand trial — meaning he or she can understand their rights and can consult with their attorney — and is found to have understood their actions at the time they committed a crime, then under Mississippi law judges cannot sentence them to mental health facilities.
Even if he could, there are limited options in the state for those in need of long-term mental health care.
“I really do think he is the poster child for why we need long-term mental health facilities for the criminally mentally ill,” Clemons said. “… That’s not an option in Mississippi.”
The shooting
The two deputies who were shot, Lt. Clint Sims and Lt. Larry Swearingen, testified that on the day of the incident, they had arrived at Coscia’s home to perform a welfare check at the request of Coscia’s family. They said they were at the scene two or three hours, knocking on the door while family members tried to call Coscia’s cell phone.
Coscia was alone in the house.
Sims said officers called SWAT. agents to the scene when they realized Coscia was potentially armed.
“He had small bags full of ammunition,” said Sims, adding officers could see the bags both in Coscia’s home and vehicle.
Coscia’s wife gave the officers a key to the house so they could enter.
“Lt. Sims had the key,” Swearingen said. “The minute he stuck the key in the lock … five shots came through the front door.”
One of the shots hit Swearingen in the lower abdomen and exited through his hip. Another hit Sims in the leg, while a third entered the home of a neighbor.
Coscia testified he had been sleeping and hadn’t known anyone was trying to get in touch with him. He said his cell phone had been in a different room and he hadn’t heard it ringing. When he woke up, he said, he saw armed law enforcement outside his home and didn’t understand why they were there.
“I thought they were there to hurt me,” Coscia said on the witness stand Friday. “I hate it happened. I’m truly sorry it happened. I’m glad they’re back at work.”
Both Sims and Swearingen were hospitalized for several days following the shooting. Sims said his injury resulted in multiple surgeries and he still has regular pain and swelling in his leg.
“Emotionally it made me a wreck,” he said. “I was mad, hurt. I lashed out at my family. The doctor also diagnosed me with (post-traumatic stress disorder). I’ve got it under control but at first — I’m surprised I still have some of my family and friends.”
Both he and Swearingen asked the court to impose the maximum sentence on Coscia. The maximum sentence for aggravated assault on a police officer in Mississippi is 30 years.
Mental illness diagnosis
Coscia spent two separate stints at the Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield, which performs competency evaluations on defendants, between the arrest and the sentencing. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed him with schizoaffective disorder — which can cause hallucinations and delusions — but ruled he was competent to face trial when on medications.
However, Clemons said after the hearing that she doubted whether Coscia truly believed he was mentally ill and that he would have gone off medications if released, making him dangerous to the public.
Even Coscia’s own attorney, Rob Roberson of Starkville, had to ask Coscia multiple times during the hearing if he understood he had to take the medications for the rest of his life.
“I’ll take the meds,” Coscia said.
“That’s not what I asked you,” Roberson said.
Clemons said the case demonstrates the bind attorneys and judges are in when they have to balance what’s fair for a defendant with keeping a community safe.
“I’m not sure the judge had much option once the defendant testified and it was obvious he did not believe he was mentally ill,” she said.
Both Clemons and District Attorney Scott Colom added law enforcement at the scene showed great restraint by not returning Coscia’s fire after two of their own had been shot.
“You never hear about the times where police show restraint, but this is an example of them showing restraint,” Colom said. “He still has his life. He’s going to spend a long time in prison as a result of what he did, but it could have gone a lot worse and would have been a justifiable shooting in my mind.”
Roberson declined to comment to media after the sentencing.
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