DRUG DEAL 'PATSY' GETS 40-YEAR TERM FOR MAN'S DEATH

Walworth County man was talked into holdup scheme that led to
killing

Before Corbit Rio got a 40-year sentence for murder Tuesday, even the
prosecutor couldn't help but call him a "patsy."

Picked by a streetwise drug dealer to rip off some suburban kids, Rio,
whose high school guidance counselor called him "someone who could be
talked into anything by anybody," so far is the only person to go to
prison for a holdup that netted $350 and killed a man who would have
turned 20 today.

Rio, an insecure, unemployed Walworth County resident who was arrested
twice for selling magazines door to door without a permit, wasn't
supposed to kill anybody in the marijuana deal/rip-off.

But the young man Rio held up didn't want to be robbed, so he wound up
dead, Rio wound up in prison and the guy who set it all up is still on
the outside. "I'm in here (jail) now so now I'm going to have to
change my hole life around one way or the other," Rio wrote in a
pre-sentence report including numerous spelling errors. "I rememble
when I was a kid and I would spende my summers wakeing up in the
morning around 7 and riding my bike to town, running around with my
friends.

"But I guess that's what life's all about, change."

Rio, 21, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Timothy Dugan on a charge of
felony murder. Rio, of Sharon, earlier pleaded guilty in the Nov. 28
slaying of Shaun J. Cobbledick of Saukville.

In the same way that the robbery wasn't Rio's idea, the would-be
marijuana deal that led to Cobbledick's death wasn't his idea.
According to a criminal complaint, Cobbledick came to Milwaukee with
some friends on behalf of his roommate.

The roommate, who had to go to work, gave Cobbledick $300 for 3 ounces
of marijuana and another friend gave Cobbledick $50 for a half-ounce
of the drug.

Unknown to Cobbledick and his friends, a woman who set up the drug
deal did so with a narcotics dealer who instead planned a rip-off.
Rio, who met the dealer through a Milwaukee man he got to know in the
Walworth County Jail, was broke when the dealer gave him a pistol and
talked him into ripping off the suburban kids.

Rio's previous convictions were for battery and theft, both
misdemeanors.

To complete the supposed transaction, Cobbledick drove off alone with
Rio, according to the complaint. Rio had Cobbledick drive to an alley
in the 1400 block of S. 10th St., where he robbed him at gunpoint.
Rio later told police that Cobbledick was shot during a subsequent
struggle for the pistol, according to the complaint. Rio left
Cobbledick slumped in his friend's car with a bullet hole in his head
and the engine running.

A pre-sentence report prepared by defense consultant Julie
Paasch-Anderson portrayed Rio as naive and unskilled. As a youngster,
he was clumsy, thought himself ugly and suffered from learning and
emotional difficulties that hurt his education, her report says.

"There were some concerns that he could accidentally hurt someone
because of his size," Paasch-Anderson wrote.

He regarded his high school graduation as the proudest moment of his
life because no one believed he could do it. Since then, he has worked
at gas stations, factories and restaurants, in addition to selling
magazines.

"Corbit is chronologically and physically an adult," Paasch-Anderson
wrote. "But it's clear from school records, teachers and family
members that he lags far behind in social and emotional
development."

Defense attorney Neil McGinn said Rio was impulsive, "acting without
thinking things through."

"A classic example," McGinn noted, occurred over the weekend when Rio
tried to apologize to Cobbledick's parents by calling them collect
several times from his County Jail pod. Naturally, they were repulsed
and shocked.

"It's outrageous, and it should not have happened," McGinn said. "He
realizes that now."

Word of Rio's proposed cooperation with authorities since his arrest
has gone out on the jail grapevine, McGinn said. Rio heard back over
the same grapevine.

"If he agrees to cooperate his (prison) time might be quite hard,"
McGinn said. "That's the word he got."

When asked whether others might be prosecuted for Cobbledick's murder,
Assistant District Attorney William J. Molitor said only, "It remains
under investigation."

"What an absolute waste," Molitor had said in court earlier. "Two
young men were brought together not fully realizing the danger of the
conduct they were engaged in.

"One loses his life and the other is going to prison, over nothing."

Checked-by: trikydik@inil.com (trikydik)