Greeley
Mitch Cozad crossed the line between competitiveness and obsession when he knifed his rival punter last September, the victim, Rafael Mendoza, said Thursday.
“I’d say to every kid out there that if you aren’t good enough yet, go hit the weight room and work out to get better,” said the 22-year-old Mendoza. “Don’t go to these lengths to get on the team.”
Cozad, 22, was convicted of second-degree assault Thursday for stabbing Mendoza in his kicking leg outside Mendoza’s apartment building in Evans. Prosecutors also charged Cozad with attempted first-degree murder, alleging Cozad stalked Mendoza before dressing in black and attacking him in hopes of replacing him as the starting punter on the University of Northern Colorado football team.
But the six-man, six-woman panel cleared him of the more serious charge after deliberating for more than a day.
Jurors on Wednesday grappled over intent and how that played into the case against Cozad. In the end, they opted for the lesser charge of second-degree assault, which carries a maximum sentence of 16 years. A conviction for attempted first-degree murder could have placed Cozad in prison for 48 years.
Jury foreman Tim Scholfield, a Weld County farmer, said the evidence presented fit the penalty.
“This has not been an easy decision for us to make, and none of us are happy about having reached the conclusion we did,” he said. “We are all satisfied that with the information given, this is the correct verdict.”
Mendoza, who did not see his attacker, agreed that the absence of an eyewitness made it tough to convince jurors Cozad tried to kill him.
“It was hard to prove it without a witness,” Mendoza said. “But he got what he deserved.”
Prosecutors portrayed Cozad – who transferred to UNC from the University of Wyoming – as a hardworking but fledgling punter who could not keep up with Mendoza on the practice field.
He got so frustrated at being Mendoza’s backup he hatched a plan to kill or disable him, prosecutors said. Cozad let his quest for athletic glory blind his common sense, said Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.
“The message is that we take sports too … seriously in this country,” said Buck. “You don’t try and kill someone over something as stupid as this.”
But Cozad’s attorney, Joseph “Andy” Gavaldon, said Buck was too ambitious in pursuing an attempted-murder charge against his client.
“This thing was so overcharged it was ridiculous,” Gavaldon said. The jury, by its verdict, “knew the charge was over the top,” he added.
Buck, however, disputed Gavaldon’s comments.
“This was absolutely not overcharged,” Buck said. “This fit the crime.”
Gavaldon had argued that another student stabbed Mendoza.
After the verdict was read, a shaken Cozad was led away to the Weld County Jail in handcuffs while his family vowed to appeal. His fiancée, Michelle Weydert, cried and huddled against her father.
Cozad’s family lashed out at prosecutors, saying Cozad had taken a polygraph test and passed. Results from a polygraph, however, are not admissible evidence, Gavaldon said.
“This is not over,” said Suzanne Cozad, Mitch Cozad’s mother. “This is far from over.”
Cozad will be sentenced Oct. 2.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
