Court Finds Cathedral City Man Competent To Face Murder Charges

A 21-year-old Cathedral City man is mentally competent to stand trial on charges of killing a drug dealer while he and his siblings were trying to rob him, a judge ruled on Monday.

Curtis Lee Drake is accused of killing Samuel Raye Cotton at his Desert Hot Springs home on Calle Azteca on Feb. 23, 2009. He is charged with murder, burglary and attempted robbery.

Drake’s older siblings, Latoya Jenkins and Lavenski Harrell, were convicted of first-degree murder in July 2010 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the marijuana dealer’s shooting death.

Drake’s case had been delayed because of doubts about his mental competency. After a three-day hearing, Superior Court Judge David B. Downing ruled that Drake is mentally competent to stand trial. Drake is due back in court April 15 for a trial-readiness conference.

Deputy District Attorney Manny Bustamante said during Jenkins’ and Harrell’s trial last summer that under California law, the siblings were equally culpable of murder because the death occurred during a robbery.

“They went in to commit a robbery. They brought guns along, foolishly, and the gun went off,” Bustamante said, adding that a half-pound of marijuana was taken.

The prosecutor said Harrell admitted to police that the trio went to the home with the intention of robbing Cotton.

Jenkins went to the front door of Cotton’s home and told his sister-in- law, Selassie Monique Winfrey, that she wanted to buy a “small amount of marijuana, a dime bag,” Bustamante said.

Winfrey let Jenkins in and went into the kitchen, where a short time later Harrell and Drake, who were armed, barged in, Bustamante said. During a scuffle, Cotton was shot in the back, he said.

Winfrey called police, but Cotton died in his kitchen.