ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - A Lima man was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for a 2019 shooting that left one man dead.
64-year-old Kenneth Cobb pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and having weapons under disability. Cobb took a plea deal to the reduced charges after he was indicted for murder and felonious assault for the death of Branson Tucker. Cobb was found guilty in 2020 of felonious assault and other charges for the shooting, but he won an appeal to have a new trial from the Ohio Supreme Court, because of his claims of self-defense. Cobb says that Tucker and others jumped him at his home following a night of gambling. Cobb got a gun from another individual and fired at Tucker.
"I thought I shot him in the leg," says Cobb. "I figured like well two people say, we going to let the streets handle it. I wasn't going to call no police, because I never had no good luck with police. Long story short, someone rung me in the morning saying 'man, Branson died'. The first thing I do is get on the phone and call the police and say 'I am the guy you are looking for. I shot him.' you know. And that's how that night went your honor."
"I can fully understand why you shot him in the leg thinking that wouldn't kill him. But, basic science tells you, ya huh it might," says Judge Terri Kohlrieser, Allen Co. Common Pleas Court. "You can't put a bullet in somebody's body and expect them to live."
Cobb was serving prison time when he won his appeal, so that time and any time in the Allen County Jail will be given to him as credit on this sentence, so he could serve around a year or less on his new sentence.
