Suitland, MD: Maryland man charged in Valentine's Day killing of estranged wife

By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 17, 2010; B01

The hunt had been on for Sonia Cobb since Valentine's Day. On what was supposed to be one last date with her estranged husband, her cousin said, the 39-year-old White Plains woman had called her youngest daughter, screamed into the phone, then hung up. She did not pick up when others called back.

A day later, the family's worst fears were realized. From the parking lot of a Home Depot in Prince George's County, Sonia Cobb's husband, Daniel G. Cobb Sr., called his mother with a chilling revelation.

"I killed Sonia," Maxine Cobb recalled her son saying, "and I'm on my way out."

Then, in another phone call just moments later, he told her why: "This is what love will do."

On Tuesday, police charged Daniel Cobb, 55, with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, according to court records and family members. He is being held in the county jail, police say.

Police said Sonia Cobb was killed about 6 p.m. Sunday at the Cedar Heights Community Center park at 1200 Glen Willow Dr. in Seat Pleasant, and that the slaying stemmed from a "domestic dispute." Court records and interviews with family members confirm that the Cobbs' relationship was, in recent months at least, marred by domestic violence.

From the beginning, Sonia Cobb, a beautician and manager of a Hair Cuttery in Silver Spring, had reservations about her Valentine's Day date with her estranged husband, said her cousin, 39-year-old Reese Wright. The setting was romantic enough -- McCormick & Schmick's restaurant in National Harbor -- but Sonia was no longer interested in being in a relationship with a man who abused her, Wright said.

"She said she got a strange feeling," Wright said. "She really didn't want to go, but she went so he would stop nagging her."

A little after 4 p.m., Wright said, Sonia Cobb called the youngest of her three daughters for help with directions.

Then, a short time later, she called back, simply yelling her oldest daughter's name into the phone "like she needed help," Wright said.

Wright said family members called police in Prince George's and Charles County. But it was not until the next day that they heard from Sonia Cobb or her husband.

Maxine Cobb, 71, got the call from her son about 2:30 p.m. Monday. He admitted killing his wife, she said, then hung up, saying he was losing a lot of blood.

Maxine said she called back, desperately trying to get her son to tell her where he was. At some point, he told her he was at the Home Depot, and she passed his location on to police. Her son also told her that the killing was done out of love, Maxine Cobb said.

At one point, Daniel Cobb also called police and admitted to the killing, authorities said. Prince George's police said they arrived about 3:20 p.m. to find Daniel Cobb still at the Home Depot on Martin Luther King Jr. Highway in Lanham. His wife's body, they said, was in the car.

Maxine Cobb said a detective told her that her son had stabbed his wife, then inflicted superficial wounds on himself.

In December, court records show, Sonia Cobb had sought a protective order against her husband, saying he had grabbed the wheel of her car while they were driving on Route 210, then choked her as she tried to get out. That case was dismissed after Sonia Cobb did not appear at a court hearing. In July, Daniel Cobb was charged with first-degree assault after his wife accused him of shoving her and loading a shotgun he owned, but those charges, too, were eventually dropped.

Maxine Cobb acknowledged that her son, a tractor-trailer driver, had, at times, been abusive.

But she said he and his wife were trying to make amends. She said he had moved out of his house in White Plains and in with her in Seat Pleasant about six weeks ago, but Sonia Cobb would occasionally visit and spend the night.

"He was a good-hearted person," Maxine Cobb said of her son. "He had this pain that he just couldn't get rid of."

Staff researcher Meg Smith and bureau manager Bonnie Smith contributed to this report.

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Man kills wife, supposedly after call to police

February 15, 7:18 PMDC Crime ExaminerAlan Henney

Suitland, Md. --- Prince George’s County police are investigating what may be a case of domestic murder.

Around 3:45 p.m. Monday police received a call that a man claimed he was suffering chest pains. He warned that he was going to kill his wife, and then himself – if police did not come right away. He said he had been experimenting with cocaine and had knives in the kitchen.

Initial reports suggested he was calling from an apartment in the 3900 block of Suitland Road in the Suitland area.

Police later received a report that the man was in a blue Dodge Caliber in the Home Depot parking lot. Police first checked the Home Depot at 150 Hampton Park Blvd., but did not find him.

Around 4 p.m. police caught him about a block from another Home Depot in the parking lot in front of the AT&T store at 10201 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Lanham.

The suspect, a 59 year old, was taken to the hospital with cuts to his wrists and forearms. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police established a crime scene in the shopping center parking lot and have not released any names.
Click here to listen to the police radio transmissions.
Photos by Tom Yeatman.