
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995                   TAG: 9509200056
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

THEFT OF WEAPON USED IN SLAYING BRINGS 2 1/2 YEARS

A Roanoke man convicted of stealing 10 handguns, one of which was used to kill a New Jersey vice detective, was sentenced to 21/2 years in jail Tuesday in Roanoke County Circuit Court.

Randall Cofske, who pleaded no contest in July to grand larceny and statutory burglary, was given a year on each charge, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mark Claytor. Cofske also got six months on a misdemeanor charge of failure to appear in court. The sentences are to be served consecutively.

Cofske and two other men broke into a Catawba residence in October 1992 and took guns, $1,200 worth of jewelry, appliances and other items. One of the guns, a .357 Magnum, turned up the following year in a New Jersey courthouse, where it was used on a detective waiting to testify in a drug case.

The other two burglars - Julian Glenn Benoit and Christopher Karroll Morris - are serving two-year sentences for their roles in the theft.

by CNB