Artie Cofield is still recovering from a three-year ordeal, a time during which he was charged with murder and eventually found not guilty by a Charles County jury.
Before Cofield was arrested and charged with five felony counts of first-degree murder, he and his family were traveling to Las Vegas.
They stopped in Wichita Falls, Texas, because of car trouble, and a woman let them stay in her extra bedroom.
Then on Feb. 12, 2022, Cofield, now 55, was arrested in Texas by the U.S. Marshals Service for a murder that occurred in Charles County more than a year earlier. A jury would later find him not guilty, but not before the episode upended his life.
While Cofield was in the Charles County Detention Center, Elizabeth Cofield, Artie Cofield’s wife, called the detention center every day before he was granted house arrest in September 2022.
Artie Cofield was found not guilty by a Charles County jury earlier this year on all counts related to a case of first-degree murder, according to court papers signed on March 5.
“My family should have never had to go through this,” Artie Cofield said.
Artie Cofield was indicted on March 25, 2022, for first-degree murder, armed robbery, robbery, first-degree assault, firearm possession with felony conviction and theft of $1,500 to under $25,000, Southern Maryland News previously reported.
Charles sheriff’s deputies responded to the 12300 block of Mount Clare Place in Waldorf for the report of a death on Oct. 27, 2020, according to a release from the Charles sheriff’s office. When deputies arrived, they found Herbert Andrei James, 64, of Waldorf inside the residence with an apparent gunshot wound to the back of his head.
His death was later ruled a homicide after an examination done by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Through their investigation, deputies learned that James was seen with Artie Cofield on Oct. 10, 2020, at the MGM Casino at the National Harbor, where James had won $7,900 while gambling. Surveillance video from the casino allegedly showed James collect his winnings and leave the casino with Cofield.
The two returned to James’ apartment at 10:28 p.m. that night, according to charging documents, which also state that deputies did not find James’s casino winnings at the scene.
During Artie Cofield’s trial there were three false statements made by a detective, according to Kevin Collins, a lawyer with Covington & Burling.
The detective said Cofield did not try to connect with James after “parting ways,” but he called James before his body was found.
The detective also said Cofield did not follow up with the sheriff’s office after the body was found, Collins said. But he called the sheriff’s office twice, though his calls were “unanswered and ignored.”
“Had she actually looked at the telephone records, she would have realized that,” the lawyer said.
The detective also misrepresented the amount of money Cofield spent during the weeks after he saw James that made it seem like Cofield was spending the same amount of the victim’s winnings from a night of gambling, Collins said.
During the cross examination, the detective admitted there were a number of false statements, according to Cofield’s lawyer.
The jury “realized that the evidence was chock-full of reasonable doubt,” he said.
Since the trial ended with a not guilty verdict last March, Cofield rarely goes anywhere. If he leaves the house for more than two hours, his son, Arthur-Lee Cofield, 12, will text, “Hey Dad, I hope everything’s OK.”
“Shouldn’t no child have to worry about their daddy going out and coming back home,” Artie Cofield said.
Elizabeth Cofield said, “I have to push him out of the house. He does not go anywhere. … It’s very hard.”
There were sleepless nights when Artie and his son cried themselves to sleep, Elizabeth Cofield said. There was financial stress, emotional stress, missed birthdays and celebrations. Arthur-Lee Cofield now sleeps with lights on and with the door open.
“It’s been a lot for this family to have to deal with,” Elizabeth Cofield said. “There should be repercussions. … You could have been looking for the real person that did this.”
Southern Maryland News requested an interview with Charles County Sheriff Troy Berry (D), who declined.
This matter involved an unintentional error made in the initial charging document, said Diane Richardson, spokesperson for the Charles sheriff’s office in an email to Southern Maryland News. The detective identified the mistake “well before” trial and the Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office and Artie Cofield’s attorney were notified.
“This was determined to be an honest mistake — not a lie or ‘intentional misconduct,’” Richardson said. “The error was not relied upon in presenting the case to the grand jury and did not affect the case from moving forward to trial.
“This is a case that should not have been charged,” said Collins, Cofield’s lawyer. “There was a time where people involved … should have reassessed the case. … It was full of holes from the very beginning.”
Despite the turmoil, Artie Cofield and his family are trying to move forward.
“It’s not about me,” he said. “But maybe if somebody can hear this, then maybe somebody can do some checks and balances.”
