Greeley – Mitch Cozad is either a master manipulator who tried to kill to become a football hero or a hard-working competitor framed for a knife attack on his chief rival on the University of Northern Colorado football team.
Jurors will start deciding today which is the real Cozad, after having heard a week-and a-half of testimony in his attempted-first-degree-murder trial in Weld County District Court.
Cozad, who did not testify in his defense, also faces a charge of second-degree assault for the Sept. 11 attack on Rafael Mendoza.
The six-man, six-woman panel was handed the case Tuesday night after both sides gave their closing arguments. Deliberations were to begin at 8:30 a.m. today.
If convicted, Cozad could face 48 years in prison.
Prosecutor Michele Meyer argued Tuesday that the 21-year-old Cozad hated Mendoza because he was the starting punter for the UNC football team. Cozad resorted to stalking and then stabbing Mendoza outside his Evans apartment to get the starting punting job, Meyer said.
“He was a man obsessed with being No. 1,” Meyer told jurors, “and with being a pro football player.”
“He set out to do off the field what he couldn’t do on the field,” Meyer added, “and that was to take Mendoza out.”
Cozad used two fellow UNC students – Kevin Aussprung and Cozad’s former girlfriend Angela Vogel – to help him pull off the attack and then to try and cover up his involvement, Meyer said.
“The defendant,” she said, “was willing to do anything to play football.”
But Cozad’s attorney – Andy Gavaldon – argued that it was Aussprung who attacked Mendoza because he and the other football players had made fun of him weeks before Sept. 11.
“He always wanted to be part of the team,” Gavaldon said. “He wanted to impress the football players.”
Vogel, meanwhile, was pressured by police to recant earlier statements that she was with Cozad the night of the attack, Gavaldon said.
Gavaldon called three witnesses to testify for Cozad including his aunt, Sandee Kitchen, who said her nephew was a “teddy bear” who never showed aggression.
Cozad’s fiancée – Michelle Weydert – also told jurors she was with the Cozad frequently in Greeley and that he got along well with the other kickers on the team.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
