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By Denise Cosby

My name is Denise Cosby.  I am a resident of Cambridge, MA. On May 18, 2009, I received a call alerting me to get to a hospital because my 21-year-old son Justin Cosby had been shot.  The next morning my son succumbed from his injuries and died. This was the most devastating call I had ever received.  This call was indeed a mother’s worst nightmare. 

On Friday, January 10, 2024, I received the second most horrific phone call that turned my life into another tail spin.  This time it was from District Attorney Marian Ryan herself and one of the trial prosecutors, David Solet who tried the case in the murder of my son Justin.  They told me about a new decision from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.  The new decision meant that anyone who had committed first degree murder between the ages of 18-20 and received a sentence of “life without parole” would instead be resentenced to “life” which is only 15 years in Massachusetts and now he would be granted eligibility for parole. In the case of my son, his killer would be paroled eligible after serving only 15 years, which is only a few months away. 

On May 18, 2009, Jabrai Copney invited his cohorts Blayn Jiggetts and Jason Aquino to come from New York to Cambridge and attempt to rob my son and ultimately they murdered him.

It was hard enough to accept that I had just lost my only son and my baby child but I was reminded that the law would punish the murderers and justice would be served under the law.  There were four people involved in carrying out this murder.  They were all apprehended.

I attended every court proceeding and trial for each of the defendants. I agreed to the court offering a plea bargain for the shooter’s girlfriend and Harvard student, Brittany Smith who misled the police and another of his cohorts Blayn Jiggetts for their role in the murder.  This was because the ADA’s told me that the person who was the most culpable of the murder should receive the strongest sentence and in order to do that someone who was involved in the murder would give truthful information to the court as to who was the master mind and the trigger man in my son’s murder.

After two and a half years of court appearances, arraignments and trials each of the defendants were sentenced.  On April 11, 2011, the shooter, Jabrai Jordan Copney was sentenced in the Massachusetts Superior Court and received a sentence of life without parole. 

Two years later, I attended a hearing at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court where it upheld Jabrai Copney’s conviction for the murder of my son Justin. 

I knew this would not bring my son back but I found some comfort in knowing that no other families would have to experience the agony and live through the pain I endured by Jabrai’s plans or cut down by his hands. 

I feel that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has reneged on the promise it made when it upheld the conviction of Jabrai Jordan Copney, the mastermind of my son Justin’s murder in 2009. Many young victims who were murdered at the time of this ruling were under 21. Their brains did not lead them to murder. The media, home life, television, video games and social norms teach children not to kill, harm themselves or others and the consequences they can receive by doing so. The Bible teaches you not to kill. 18-year-olds are encouraged to enlist in the military where many are taught to handle weapons responsibly to protect our country. What is the difference with the development and maturity of their brains at that age for those young people, opposed to thugs who sit around, plot and plan robberies and murders?

I can’t get out of my mind the text message conversation that Jabrai and one of his cohorts had on the bus ride back to New York asking him if he thought the bullet he shot at Justin hit him and Jabrai had the audacity to respond “I don’t miss.” Does that sound like somebody whose brain wasn’t fully mature enough to know what shooting somebody down meant and also gave the impression, that he was confident enough to know what murder meant?

I’m told that this new ruling affects around 200 families across the State of Massachusetts.  Where are the laws that protect victims and assure them that they can depend on the laws that mislead them and falsely provided justice to families and victims who have been harmed.

These criminals are now able to go up for parole and have another chance at living a full life, produce children, grandchildren and a legacy of generations to come.  What about my son and other victims who will not be able to receive another chance at life?  What about the legacy that has been stolen from young men who will not be able to produce children and allow parents such as myself the opportunity to be grandparents and enjoy helping raise and nurture the off springs of our murdered children that are no longer possible? What about the young women whose life has been taken and will never enjoy motherhood or leaving a legacy for their families’ future generations.

This law is triggering and mentally debilitating for victims. Now each of us victims have to relive the moments of our loved ones’ murder again, as we get ready to re-write victim impact statements when these murderers go up for parole.  Instead of the laws protecting and supporting the victims and their families, this law re-victimizes victims, families, friends and communities.

I appeal to any lawyers, victims and law-abiding citizens who have been affected by this law to come forward and stand with me to correct this injustice. I have been advised that the only way to change this ruling by amending the Massachusetts Constitution. If that is the case, then that is what we have to do. 

If you would like your voice to be heard, please messenger me on Facebook or email me at survivingmurder1@gmail.com.

Denise Cosby, a Somerville Realtor, worked many years for The Norton Group. Author of Forthcoming Memoir: Murder at Harvard University Kirkland House – A Mother’s Worst Nightmare and co-founder of the Just-in-Time Initiative. She is a writer and a parent of a murdered child.

About the court ruling:
A 4-3 ruling by the State Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) overruled the Legislature and ruled that life sentences without the possibility of parole for offenders who were 18, 19 or 20 when they committed their crimes violate the prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment and are unconstitutional.