DATE: Tuesday, April 22, 1997               TAG: 9704220245

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  117 lines

HE HELPED MANY OTHERS GET OFF DRUGS BUT COULDN'T FREE HIMSELF OF BONDAGE

In 1992, Cedric M. Cochran, then 17, told the Virginia Commission on Youth that teen-age drug offenders don't fear death. To die young, he said, is ``already accepted.''

Late Saturday, he offered bloody testament to his words.

Cochran, 23, was one of two men found dead in a car parked on a Villa Heights street, its engine still running.

Police have offered no motive for the deaths of Cochran, of the 1500 block of W. 41st St. in Norfolk, and Antonio A. Shoulders, 20, of the 3300 block of Indian River Road in Chesapeake. The car they were in was found in the 3000 block of Rialto Place shortly before midnight.

But Fred McCaskill-Baker has little doubt what led Cochran to his death.

For more than two years, the two men worked together in a program McCaskill-Baker founded to get youths off drugs and into legitimate businesses. McCaskill-Baker said in an interview that Cochran helped at least 300 youths kick the drug habit in his more than two years with the program, named Street Smart.

In fact, McCaskill-Baker nicknamed Cochran ``Moses'' because he helped so many drug-troubled youngsters ``cross over to the promised land of college and military service.''

But for Cochran, there would be no such deliverance.

McCaskill-Baker said he knew his old friend had returned to the drug trade. And he was saddened to hear of his death.

Why did he return to his old ways?

``C.C. said he looked at this way: He was already out of school, he had no chance for a job, and with a criminal record his chances were even less,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``He saw no future.

``His only hope was to die young, with something in his hand. That was better than to live a long life in misery.''

McCaskill-Baker - who is no longer with Street Smart - said Cochran provided invaluable insights into the drug culture, insights he used to steer other youths from the path Cochran followed.

Cochran became a member of Street Smart's advisory board, giving the program's directors an inside view of how tough and sophisticated young drug dealers had become. He was working to make a life for himself free of drug dealing.

In August 1992, McCaskill-Baker and Cochran were among more than 30 people who appeared before a 12-member legislative commission studying youth crime and prevention.

Cochran told the commission that he became involved in the drug trade when he was in elementary school, McCaskill-Baker said. He learned the basics of the trade from a neighbor who became a father figure for him.

``He said it starts with boredom - they are out there with a whole lot of time to spare and no money to do it with,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``His first score for drugs was to finance a field trip for school.''

While money was the tangible benefit, respect was the payoff Cochran relished, McCaskill-Baker said.

``He didn't have much of a connection with his father,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``His father would make promises of getting together and then break them. It would break Cochran's heart. I could see it in his eyes. He just wanted his father's approval.''

Absent that, Cochran sought approval where he could find it. And that meant doing things for others he saw as role models. For instance, when older boys needed someone younger than themselves beaten up, they turned to Cochran, who was younger.

Over time, he slipped deeper into the drug world.

``First it was yelling `5-0' when police were coming when (someone) was dealing drugs,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``Then it was carrying bags of money or drugs. He was constantly trying to gain the approval of a mentor, someone who was older or a father figure.''

Finally, he was dealing. Cochran said that as ``a drug dealer, he felt like he was God,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``He could snap his finger and get anything he wanted.''

Yet, McCaskill-Baker, who is also a Presbyterian minister, said Cochran had a deep spiritual awareness. ``He told me that when he looked at me, he knew there was a bigger, stronger God. He was open to being spiritual.''

And he insists that Cochran was not evil.

``He was extremely intelligent, extremely bright and philosophical,'' McCaskill-Baker said. And he cared about others.

Cochran was loathe to carry a gun, McCaskill-Baker said.

``I never saw him with a gun, although he always had one available if he needed it,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``But he preferred to talk. That was his strength, and he was respected for that.''

Cochran ``deeply loved his mother,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``He used to pile loads of money on her dresser. She was very, very poor, but she would never accept a dime. And it used to tear him up.''

She knew where the money had come from, Cochran said. ``It was drug money and she would never accept it. His mother was a real hero,'' he said. ``Not many people would turn that down. She's a remarkable woman. And she was the only person that kept C.C.'s conscience alive.''

McCaskill-Baker said Cochran also saw what was happening around him and knew it was bad.

``He told me the drug dealers were getting younger and younger and more violent,'' McCaskill-Baker said. And also more impersonal.

And there was the money.

``After a while the kids make so much money they can't possibly spend it all,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``It becomes a competitive thing. They compete with other drug dealers . . . . that's where you got your respect.'' He said Cochran had one particular dealer he competed with.

``He lived in constant fear,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``That sort of goes along with the drug world. You're constantly looking over your shoulder.''

``He would come into my office shaking. Just literally shaking,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``He said, `When you get to the top, people just want what you've got.' He would come in for sanctuary, just to feel safe for a few moments. And then he would go back. He would be terrified, I could see it in his eyes. But he would go back.''

While he could not escape, Cochran helped McCaskill-Baker free others from the drug web before they were consumed.

``C.C. would tell me how to help those kids pay off their debts and get out of the drug world alive,'' McCaskill-Baker said. ``He really was a remarkable kid. He just didn't have the breaks that most of us do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos

GARY C. KNAPP

Fred McCaskill-Baker worked with Cedric M. Cochran, 23, who was

found dead in a car shortly before midnight Saturday, for more than

two years in a program called Street Smart. McCaskill-Baker saved a

number of newspaper stories about the program. KEYWORDS: MURDER

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