The 27-year-old man accused of shooting Grammy-award winning musician Marc Cohn in the head during an attempted carjacking in Denver pleaded not guilty today to a myriad of charges filed in the Aug. 7 incident.
Cohn is married to ABC news anchor Elizabeth Vargas. Vargas and Bob Woodruff, seriously injured Sunday in a roadside bombing in Iraq, were recently named co-anchors of ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
Cohn was shot after he played a sold-out show at the Denver Botanic Gardens. His road manager, Thomas Dube, was hit in the chin by the same bullet but was not seriously injured.
Yacteen, who was wanted for failing to appear in a Denver court case, had fled RTD transit security officers late that August evening. Yacteen was allegedly involved in several carjacking attempts and was attempting to carjack Cohn’s entourage when Cohn was shot.
Patricia Vail, 26, has been charged with accessory to the crime for allegedly helping Yacteen.
Denver District Judge Christina Habas gave Patrick Mulligan, Yacteen’s lawyer, 45 days to file motions. She also scheduled a hearing for April 3 to discuss whether prosecutors and the defense have reached a plea bargain in the case.
Mulligan said that he plans to vigorously defend Yacteen, particularly against a charge of attempted first-degree murder.
Investigators said that when the RTD officers gave chase, Yacteen set out on a crime spree that included an attempted carjacking in the 1400 block of Stout and Champa Streets, a shooting and attempted carjacking a few minutes later in the 1400 block of Stout, and a carjacking nearby in which he forced four men out of a vehicle and fled the scene. He was taken into custody nearly 24-hours later after barricading himself in a vacant house at 2720 Josephine St.
In an interview on ABC News “20/20” Cohn, who has recovered, said that “looking back there was a sense of danger…Something was unstable where we were…This figure appears, and I did not process anything about this person except the gun that he was holding. I yelled,’Duck,’ really loud, because he was clearly now pointing it at the van.”
ABC has been shaken by the death of longtime anchor Peter Jennings, who died of cancer. Vargas and Woodruff were set to replace Jennings. Woodruff suffered head wounds and broken bones in Sunday’s attack, and part of his skull cap had to be removed because of brain swelling.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
