Mikhail Markhasev, an 18-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, had bragged that he'd shot a black man and that the case was on the news.
Born in Lviv, Markhasev had come to the U.S. in 1989 with his mother, attending a program for gifted children in West Hollywood, where a teacher described him as well-liked and well-behaved. But, after moving to Los Alamitos, California, in 1992, he began hanging out with a gang and exhibiting racism. In 1995 Markhasev and other gang members attacked two African American men with a knife at a gas station and served six months at a juvenile correctional facility. According to a friend, his time in the facility changed him, and he seemed more combative and angrier upon his release.
Prosecutors said that Markhasev, after demanding money from Cosby, shot him in the head because he was moving too slowly. Markhasev's DNA was found on a knit cap wrapped around a gun found five miles from the crime scene, and the gun was matched to the bullet that killed Cosby.
Letters written by Markhasev while in jail were presented at his trial. In one letter, Markhasev wrote: "I shot the nigger .... I went to rob a [drug dealer] and obviously found something else."
In 1998 Markhasev was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus 10 years, for first-degree murder and attempted robbery.
... it seems he could have become an influential voice for gun regulation etc. and IIRC some tentative steps in that direction were taken. So coming up with some allegations to 'destroy' him would just be Standard Operating Procedure for several groups. Since he shut up about it and went more or less semi-silent for almost two decades, it seems they could well have backed off and decided they didn't need to go through the trouble of pressing the allegations.
That's possible too, as long as people want to consider possibilities.
