Mock Trial: Deadly Rattlesnake Bite & Fourth Amendment Rights

COMMUNITY NEWS Mock Trial

Deadly Rattlesnake Bite & Fourth Amendment Rights

The 2022 Santa Cruz County Mock Trial competition is underway — virtually via Zoom this year.

Students from six high schools are participating: Aptos High, Harbor High, Pacific Collegiate, Santa Cruz High, Soquel High and Scotts Valley High.

Mock Trial is one of several academic competitions organized by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Sita Kaimal and Denise Pitman-Rosas are the coordinators.

This year’s case involves a deadly rattlesnake bite, landlord-tenant tensions, a smart camera and the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Students have been working on the case, People v. Cobey, since the start of the school year, coached by teachers and volunteer attorneys. The presiding judge volunteers. Volunteer attorneys evaluate how the students do.

Three rounds of competition have taken place, on Feb. 8, Feb. 10 and Feb. 15. The fourth round is scheduled for Feb. 17.

Then the top four teams will compete in SemiFinals Tuesday, Feb. 22, with the top two in the Finals Thursday, Feb. 24.

People v. Cobey is the trial of Jamie Cobey, a horticulturist living in Burnsley, California, a town in the high desert. Cobey is charged with the homicide of Cobey’s landlord and next-door neighbor, Erik Smith.

Mock Trial is one of several academic competitions organized by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Sita Kaimal and Denise Pitman-Rosas are the coordinators.

The prosecution will argue that Cobey should be convicted of first-degree murder or the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter.

In the early afternoon of April 29, 2021, Erik Smith opened his mailbox and was bitten by a Mojave rattlesnake that was inside.

The relationship between Cobey and Smith had deteriorated with both engaging in unneighborly behavior.

Tensions intensified once the pandemic eviction moratorium went into effect, and Smith wanted to evict Cobey and Cobey’s elderly mother for non-payment of rent. After Smith shut off the power to Cobey’s home, Cobey’s mother died on April 22.

The prosecution alleges that on the morning of April 29, Jamie Cobey intentionally placed the rattlesnake with its rattle removed in Smith’s mailbox so the snake would fatally bite Smith.

Prosecution witnesses include a lineworker who witnessed Cobey standing close to Smith’s mailbox that morning while Cobey held a small metal-wire cage.

A neighbor will testify to seeing Cobey enraged at Smith at the funeral of Cobey’s mother the day before Smith’s death, as well as overhearing Cobey yell, “I’m going to kill him!” later that evening.

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