IN THE FACE OF DEATH

Ennis Cosby wasn't just shot. His corpse, with a bullet wound in the left temple, was found face up with a split but virtually unswollen lip. That injury is telling: trauma inflicted after the heart has stopped will not cause the swelling and discoloration usually associated with blows to living flesh. The most logical conclusion, sources close to the prosecution tell TIME, is that whoever shot Bill Cosby's only son also kicked or hit the young man in the mouth. And whoever committed the crime may have done so after being offered a courtesy. Police crime-scene photos shown to TIME (which the magazine declined to publish) reveal Cosby's right hand clutching a pack of Natural American Spirit cigarettes. The photos also show a telltale stippling of gunpowder residue on the left side of Cosby's face, making it apparent that the killer got within 4 ft. of his victim. Close enough, according to forensic experts familiar with the pictures, for Cosby to have been killed in the act of offering a cigarette.

The dramatic details, made available to TIME last week, are exacerbating the problems of a prosecution already struggling with tainted witnesses and a paucity of evidence as it assembles the case against Michael Markhasev, 18, the suspect charged in the January murder of Ennis Cosby, 27. The reconstruction provided to TIME last week is worrisome because the killer would have been so near Cosby that the victim's blood would have spattered from the kick onto the perpetrator's pants, shoes or socks. No such evidence has surfaced. To deal with the kick, the prosecution may play the race card, arguing that the cruel blow to Cosby's face is rooted in the suspect's hatred of African Americans. Markhasev's juvenile police record includes an arrest for assault with a deadly weapon for his involvement in a fight with members of a predominantly black street gang. While he was serving time in juvenile prison, Markhasev was disciplined for five violent incidents, each involving African Americans.

The prosecution will turn to Eli Zakaria and Sara Ann Peters to testify that Markhasev was not only near the scene of the crime but also said he was going to "go do a jack." The government's lawyers will thus argue that whoever killed Cosby had robbery in mind and turned the body onto its back, presumably looking for something to steal, since taking the victim's car was no longer a possibility. "Who's gonna steal a car with a flat tire?" asks a prosecutor close to the case. Indeed, both Zakaria and Peters, who were with Markhasev that night, informed police that their companion told them he shot Cosby because the victim was uncooperative. But Zakaria, who comes from a well-to-do family in Huntington Beach, Calif., has a rap sheet two pages long that includes such charges as assault with a deadly weapon, obstructing an officer, burglary and buying cocaine. And another couple who may be called to place Markhasev at the crime scene has the dubious distinction of being alleged crack suppliers to Markhasev, Zakaria and Peters.

In fact, the prosecution's chief witness is shaky and inconsistent. The woman who was with Cosby until just before he died provided descriptions that helped police create a composite portrait that comes close to matching Markhasev's appearance. Yet when she viewed a police lineup that included Markhasev, she pointed out another man. She misidentified the suspect even after all those in the lineup repeated the two variants of the threat she heard on the night Cosby was killed: "Open the door, or I'll kill you," and "Open your door, or I'll shoot."

Other testimony will come from Chris So, an acquaintance of Markhasev's who came forward with information partly to reap the $100,000 reward posted by the National Enquirer. So says he and a friend, Michael Chang, accompanied Markhasev to a wooded area, apparently on a search. The trio did not find what Markhasev was looking for. Weeks later, when So led the Los Angeles police department to the spot, the officers located a knit cap and pistol. But no fingerprints have been found on the gun.

Such evidentiary weaknesses would be crucial tools in the hands of high-caliber, publicity-savvy defense lawyers. But Markhasev has fired them all. Until May 13, he was represented by Charles Lindner, the Los Angeles lawyer who ghostwrote the portion of Johnnie Cochran's O.J. Simpson trial summation that evoked the Holocaust. Lindner turned out to have bad chemistry with Markhasev and his mother Vickie; minutes before the judge took his seat for the arraignment, Markhasev dramatically turned to Lindner and whispered, "I don't want you." Lindner feels that "no matter what, innocent or not, the kid is going down."

Darren Kavinoky, a lawyer who is no longer part of Markhasev's defense but claims to remain close to the suspect's family, says the Ukrainian emigre may find it impossible to enlist--much less afford--a top-notch defense, especially in a town where the victim's father is not only beloved but also powerful. Earlier in the case, Kavinoky tried to beef up Markhasev's defense team, approaching prominent law firms. None were willing to help. For example, says Kavinoky, "the message came through Robert Shapiro's office that no prominent attorney in this town will take this case." Says Lindner, who sought the advice of Cochran (a friend of Bill Cosby's) and received a qualified go-ahead: "It's like defending the man who allegedly shot Santa Claus' son. Particularly if Santa Claus is sitting in court every day only a few feet away from the jury box." Lindner says the word around town from Cosby is "woe unto anyone who tries to profit from my son's death."

Despite pleading his innocence, Markhasev does not expect to be acquitted. In detention he is tough and macho, making statements to the sheriff's deputies that come very close to self-incrimination, according to internal case memos. Prosecutors, in fact, are considering calling some of the deputies to testify. Kavinoky says Markhasev is "very candid, very straightforward." His world view, though, has been practically Dostoevskian ever since he turned 15 and learned a secret about his father that the family won't discuss. The hard-working student with good grades was transformed overnight. Now, says Kavinoky, "he sees that the weight of the world is against him and that regardless of who did what, when, where or how, he's going to be the one to pay the price. He's going to do the rest of his life in jail." In detention Markhasev is never far away from Latino gang members he knew on the outside. He writes to a girlfriend that "the homies are taking care of me"; then he adds, "I'm not really sad or anything. I take life as it comes. If this is what God has for me, then I've got nothing to cry about."

Joseph Bosco is a journalist based in Los Angeles and is the author of A Problem of Evidence, a book on the O.J. Simpson case.