A 27-year-old man was convicted Wednesday of two counts of attempted second-degree murder and several lesser counts relating to a bloody stabbing of a couple in Columbia last year because, prosecutors said, he was obsessed with the daughter of one of the victims.

After a two-day bench trial, Judge Richard Bernhardt convicted Gregory Imes, 27, of no fixed address, of two counts of attempted second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, and one count of first-degree burglary, according to Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for Howard County State’s Attorney Dario Broccolino.

Imes had been charged with the non-fatal stabbing of Maria Elena Cokley, 52, formerly of Columbia, and Reginald Dennis Crudup, 52, of Columbia on Sept. 27, 2008, at Cokley’s Columbia home. During the trial prosecutors described how Imes had been dating Maria Cokley’s daughter, Camille, 22, and had become increasingly obsessed with her before she ended the relationship.

In closing arguments Wednesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Maurice Frazier told Bernhardt that Imes had threatened to harm her or people she knew if she broke up with him.“These are not the mad ravings of a jilted lover,” Frazier said. “It was cold, it was calculated, it was planned.”

However, public defender Louis Willemin, Imes’ attorney, said that Imes could have killed Crudup and Maria Cokley if he had wanted to, but had left the house before doing so. The crime was an impulsive act, he said during closing arguments.“If his goal had been to kill Maria Cokley and Reginald Crudup, he would have done so,” Willemin said. “This gives every earmark of an impulse event of opportunity.”

Police said that Imes entered the rear of Cokley’s residence through a sliding glass door, using a large rock to break the window, and then went upstairs and stabbed Cokley and Crudup, according to charging documents.

On Tuesday Maria Cokley took the stand and described being awoken on Sept. 27, 2008 by a “loud smashing sound” and “footsteps pounding up the stairs.”

Cokley described Crudup trying to shield her from Imes as Imes approached her and described watching the two men struggling on the stairs. “They were battling at it. They are about the same build. They were really going at it,” she testified.

At one point, Imes freed himself from Crudup and attacked her with the knife, demanding to know where her daughter was, she said. She fended off his stabbing motions with her arm, and Crudup soon came to her aid again, she said, pulling Imes down the stairs.

Maria Cokley was transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Since the stabbing, she is still unable to clench a fist or hold anything of any weight with her left hand, she said.

Reginald Crudup also testified, saying he spent a month at the shock trauma center as a result of his struggle with Imes.
 
Imes is being held by the Maryland Department of Corrections on a two-year sentence for a different case, according to Kirwan. Imes faces 30 years on each attempted second-degree murder charge, 25 years on each assault count, and 20 years on the burglary count, Kirwan said. Bernhardt set sentencing for Oct. 8, Kirwan said.

Defense and prosecuting attorneys were not immediately available for comment.

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