East Texas Man on Death Row Loses Federal Appeal

HOUSTON (AP) – A man on death row for an East Texas robbery a decade ago in which three people were shot, one fatally, has lost a federal court appeal. The decision moves Richard Cobb, 28, a step closer to execution. Cobb argued to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that letters from a jailhouse informant to Cherokee County prosecutors improperly were withheld as evidence in Cobb’s trial. The informant also testified against Cobb at his capital murder trial for killing Kenneth Vandever, 37, during the robbery of a store in Rusk in 2002 and abducting, shooting and wounding two female clerks. The New Orleans-based appeals court ruled late Friday the letters were immaterial in the trial outcome. Cobb’s companion in the robbery, Beunka Adams, was executed last month.