A man charged in a weekend shooting death at a south Lawrence apartment complex was arrested Monday night in Topeka.

Shortly before 10 p.m., Lawrence Police were called by Topeka Police and told that Lafayette Damon Ester Cosby was in custody. No details about the arrest were available late Monday.

Lawrence detectives were going to Topeka to bring Cosby to the Douglas County Jail, Police Lt. Dave Cobb said.

A warrant for Cosby’s arrest on a charge of first-degree murder was issued Monday afternoon in Douglas County District Court.

Cosby, 24, who is suspected in the shooting of a 28-year-old Lawrence man this weekend at Jefferson Commons, 2511 W. 31st St., stabbed another man to death in a fight in 1997, and some see a possible connection between the two slayings.

Robert Tyrone Martin, discovered dead of gunshot wounds early Sunday at Jefferson Commons, was a friend of David E. Walker Jr., whom Cosby stabbed to death in November 1997 at Colony Woods apartments, 1301 W. 24th St.

Cosby was acquitted by a jury that found he was acting in self-defense, a decision that angered Walker’s friends and family members. Now, there’s speculation among some Martin acquaintances that tension between Martin and Cosby could be a factor in Martin’s death this weekend.

“I know that Robert (Martin) was always upset about what happened to David,” said Kathy Guerra of Lawrence, a friend of Martin. “I want to say ‘yes,’ that maybe it might have played a part (in his killing), but I can’t say that as a matter of fact. … I’m sure it’s got to be weighing on people’s minds.”

On April 3, 1998 — nearly six years ago to the day of Martin’s killing — jurors acquitted Cosby of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter in Walker’s death.

The 1997 stabbing happened shortly after Walker and his friends were ejected from a party at Colony Woods. Walker was involved in a scuffle with someone else at the party and was asked to leave. Just before leaving, he shoved a woman to the pavement, according to testimony.

Cosby testified that he began fighting with Walker, 23, who choked him and threatened to kill him. Cosby admitted pulling out a 4-inch kitchen knife and stabbing Walker several times.

While he was awaiting trial, Cosby wrote a letter to the judge and asked to be let out of jail on Sundays to go to Bible study at the Juvenile Detention Center.

“After accepting God in my life, I study the Bible often,” Cosby wrote. “And I feel like everyone must know that the key to heaven is faith in the Lord.”

Different circumstances

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This time, police allege the circumstances are different. Some of the people who attended the party have told police that Martin “was just sitting there” when he was shot and killed, Lt. David Cobb said.

“There was no fight in that apartment, there was nothing going on other than that he got shot,” Cobb said. “There was no indication that anything was going to happen.”

Cobb said Cosby had been staying temporarily at the apartment where Martin’s body was found, a third-story unit in building 10 of Jefferson Commons. Martin was a guest there overnight at what Cobb described as an “after-hours, after a bar party.”

A roommate who’d stayed somewhere else that night came home, found Martin’s body on the floor and called police shortly before 7 a.m. Cobb said the killing happened sometime after 2 a.m., but police didn’t yet know the exact time of death.

Investigators are still piecing together what happened based on interviews with nine or 10 witnesses who were at the party, Cobb said. Two witnesses thought to have been with Cosby at the time of the shooting — Alrick A. Johnson, 26, and Brianna Leaire Moten, 19 — turned themselves in for questioning Monday afternoon after police put out an alert asking for the public’s help finding them and Cosby.

First-degree murder is defined as an intentional and premeditated killing, or one that happens “in the commission of, attempt to commit or flight from an inherently dangerous felony.”

Second tragedy

Martin’s death is the second tragedy for his family in recent years. In 1993, his younger sister, Brandy Martin, died in an arson fire. An Even Start classroom at East Heights School was later dedicated in memory of her and LaTonya Farmer, another girl who died in the fire.

Robert Martin served a sentence with the Kansas Department of Corrections after being convicted in the early 1990s of aggravated robbery, state records show. He had been charged 10 times in District Court since 1994 with offenses ranging from aggravated battery to possession of marijuana, but in most cases he was acquitted at trial or had charges dismissed.

Martin’s loved ones said he should be remembered mainly for being someone who loved his family, including his four young children.

“Robert wasn’t just a criminal record,” Guerra, Martin’s friend, said. “He was a person. He had a family. … He wasn’t innocent, but he wasn’t bad, either.”

When Guerra’s son was born, Martin visited her in the hospital and kissed the newborn on the forehead — a gesture she said was his trademark.

“He was really debonair with the ladies, calling them ‘Precious,'” Guerra said. “That was just something that I’ll never forget.”

Guerra said one of the things upsetting Martin’s loved ones was that people who were with him at the party apparently left after the shooting.

“I know that’s something that is tearing his family up right now,” she said. “Robert would have been the first to stand up … if you were in trouble.”