MADISON, Tenn. (WTVF) — The man who killed 41-year-old Brooke Howard had a long criminal history.
Steven Cosby faces a criminal homicide charge in this case. He just got out of jail in March for assaulting her.
NewsChannel 5 pulled up his file. Printed out, it is 19 pages long. Since 1991, Cosby's been jailed at least seven times for assaulting someone. Sadly, Metro Police report on three occasions since 2017, Cosby's been charged with hurting the victim in this murder. As for his release earlier this year, it was for an aggravated assault on Howard in 2019. Cosby served about three years and four months of a six-year sentence.
On Tuesday, Howard was found dead in her Madison apartment. Blunt force trauma appears to be the cause. When police looked back on security camera footage, it showed Cosby going into her place, and then going out to a dumpster. Police found clothing covered in blood in the dumpster.
Sadly, the CEO of Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence explained it's not uncommon for survivors to become victims again.
"If that has been their pattern, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior," said Jennifer Escue.
Escue looked at Cosby's criminal history with us. A prior charge that stuck out to her was strangulation.
"It's really serious and people should know that if that has happened to you, it makes you much more likely that you'll be a victim of homicide," Escue said.
She explained how hard it is for a survivor to get out of the relationship for good.
"It usually takes a victim leaving an abuser at least seven times on average before they leave for good. Something we should all know is leaving is actually a very dangerous thing to do because domestic violence is about power and control. When a perpetrator feels that some of their control is slipping and they're losing some over their victim. That is when they can actually become more lethal," she said.
Clearly, in this case, the system failed two people.
"A perpetrator doesn't stop being an abuser unless they've got some really serious intervention and help. If that is their go-to coping mechanism — the need for power and control over a human being is their driving force — that doesn't change overnight or easily," she said.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 800-799-7233.
