A man charged in the fatal shooting of a Tampa DJ is now facing another charge in an unrelated case in which he is accused of pistol-whipping a man in Ybor City earlier this year, records show.
Some circumstances in the new case against Joel Moreno Cobo — a violent armed encounter with a stranger in Ybor — are similar to those in the incident that prompted prosecutors to charge him in last month’s shooting of Dedrick Sykes, who worked in the Tampa Bay area as DJ ShyGuy.
In that case, Cobo claimed he shot Sykes, 41, in self-defense after the two men exchanged words at an Ybor City intersection and Sykes got out of his Jeep. Prosecutors have charged Cobo, 31, with second-degree murder.
The new case, which led prosecutors to file a single count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon involving a discharged firearm on Nov. 21, stems from an incident on Feb. 20, court records show.
About 3:50 a.m. that day, Cobo was sitting in a Mercedes C63 parked in the 1500 block of Seventh Avenue when an unidentified man approached on the sidewalk across the street, according to a motion prosecutors have filed to keep Cobo in jail until the case is resolved.
Surveillance video shows the man “pumping his fists in the air, picking items up and tossing them around while walking,” the motion states. “Based on the victim’s actions as seen in the video footage, it appeared as if he was possibly experiencing some type of mental health episode.”
As the man approached the front of Bradley’s on 7th, a nightclub at 1510 E. Seventh Ave, he picked up an unidentified object and threw it toward the street. Cobo got out of the Mercedes and appeared to “engage in a verbal confrontation” with the man. Two seconds after getting out of the car, Cobo walked quickly across Seventh with a gun in his right hand.
Video shows Cobo running toward the man and hitting him in the upper body with the gun, causing the man to fall down, according to the motion. While the man was on the ground, Cobo hit him about 14 more times in the upper body and then walked back to his car, the motion states.
As the man tried to get up and walk away, Cobo ran back toward him, catching up to him as a vehicle passed. Cobo waited for the vehicle to pass, then hit him with the gun again, causing the man to fall again, the motion states. While the man was on the ground, Cobo hit him again and the gun discharged once. The bullet struck the glass front door of Bradley’s on 7th, causing it to shatter.
Police learned of the incident when Bradley’s staff reported the damaged door later that morning and investigators collected surveillance video from the area. They were able to identify Cobo and interview him.
Cobo told police that “he believed the victim was attacking him and his vehicle by striking it with the unknown object,” the motion states. “The defendant stated the victim told him he was on drugs, so he was not comfortable confronting him without a weapon, so he had his firearm in his hand. The defendant stated that he believed the victim was trying to strike him but was not able to, which is why he intentionally struck the victim with the firearm.”
Cobo said he never put his finger on the trigger of his gun and that he believed it malfunctioned when it discharged.
Investigators have not been able to identify the man in the video so he is listed as John Doe in a charging document. The charge is a second-degree felony punishable by up 15 years in prison.
Erin Maloney, a spokesperson for Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez, said that Tampa police initially sent the case to prosecutors as a culpable negligence charge. Prosecutors opted not to pursue the charge at the time but police and prosecutors gave the case another look “given the violent murder perpetrated by this defendant on Nov. 14,” Maloney said in a statement.
“The February incident involved allegations that Joel Moreno Cobo maliciously beat a homeless man,” Maloney said. “No arrest was made, and we did not file charges at that time given some of the evidentiary challenges. While those hurdles still exist, we decided in addition to the murder charge from November 14 to file a charge of aggravated battery resulting from the February incident.”
Some details of the new case were also presented to a judge during a hearing Wednesday on a motion by prosecutors to keep Cobo in jail without bond while the murder case is pending.
“This also helped to demonstrate to the judge the pattern of conduct that supported holding this defendant in custody pending trial,” Maloney said.
Judge Christopher Sabella granted the motion, so Cobo remains in Hillsborough’s Falkenburg Road Jail.
At a hearing Monday, Sabella also granted the prosecutors’ request to keep Cobo in jail until the aggravated battery case is resolved.
He is being represented by a public defender in that case. An attorney for the new case is not listed in court records.