Plea resolves old shooting case

PANAMA CITY — A drawn-out attempted murder case charged in 2010 came to an end last week when a defendant who’s spent his entire adult life behind bars pleaded no contest to lesser charges in a plea deal that will not put him in prison for an additional day.

That’s not to say Carron Cobb won’t spend time in jail. He’s already there until 2025, according to the Department of Corrections. But in pleading no contest Monday to storming into a home in July 2010 and shooting a man in the back, Cobb, who was 16 when he was arrested, avoided a sentence that could have been much longer.

Judge Timothy Campbell sentenced Cobb to five years, and that sentence will run concurrent with any other sentence. He had turned down plea offers that were significantly longer, according to court records.

The case went on so long Cobb was represented by several attorneys, including Barbara Beasley when she was with the Public Defender’s Office. Beasley got a job with the State Attorney’s Office, and though she never actually worked as prosecutor on Cobb’s case, she did work closely with the prosecutor — so close she would sit next to the prosecutor in court, which Cobb found unnerving.

Caren Roybal, who represented Cobb when his case was finally resolved last week, filed a motion to disqualify the entire State Attorney’s Office for the 14th Judicial Circuit from prosecuting Cobb, and Gov. Rick Scott brought in a prosecutor from the 1st Judicial Circuit.

Cobb had been charged with attempted murder and other felonies, but he pleaded no contest to aggravated battery and aggravated assault.