A man who was acquitted of sexual assault charges by a Bowie County jury in January is facing a capital murder charge in the death of an 18-year-old Dallas woman.
Antonio Lamar Cochran, 34, was found not guilty Jan. 22 by a jury of eight women and four men of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old Texarkana girl. Saturday Cochran was arrested in Dallas and charged with capital murder in the death of Zoe Hastings.
Hastings was abducted in her family’s minivan from a Walgreens Pharmacy parking lot Oct. 11 where she had stopped to return a movie on her way to church. Hastings body was found in a wooded area in Dallas the following day. The minivan was located in a nearby creek.
In a news conference Saturday, Dallas Police spokesman Max Geron described Cochran as a sexual predator. Geron said DNA evidence collected from the Hastings crime scene in Dallas was matched to Cochran’s DNA Friday. Saturday morning Cochran was arrested at a Northeast Dallas apartment by members of the U.S. Marshals Service, Geron said.
In the Bowie County sexual assault trial, a 17-year-old girl testified that Cochran, who had dated her mother, offered to give her a ride Feb. 12, 2014. The girl said Cochran threatened to kill her before sexually assaulting her in the car and in a wooded area.
The Texarkana teen said Cochran was raping her when residents who lived nearby approached with flashlights, concerned about a recent string of burglaries in the area. Those residents called 911 and Cochran was pulled over a few minutes later. When the girl was alone with an officer she claimed to have been sexually assaulted. Cochran was arrested for sexual assault that night and charged with possession of methamphetamine for drugs found in the car.
At trial, defense lawyers argued that Cochran had consensual sex with the Texarkana teen.
Cochran is being held in the Dallas County jail. Bail is set at $1 million.
