PORT ANGELES — A man who shot and killed another man in Forks earlier this month will be charged with second-degree murder today, a Clallam County deputy prosecutor said Thursday.
Noe Barron Cordova, 29, was initially charged with a weapons violation in the death of Robert Coberly Jr. of Forks following the April 4 shooting.
Cordova was charged with alien in possession of a firearm. Federal authorities believe that Cordova is in the country illegally. He is being held on $100,000 bail in the Clallam County jail.
However, when Cordova appears at 9 a.m. today in Clallam County Superior Court for a scheduled hearing, prosecutors will add the murder charge.
“The Sheriff’s Department took another look at the evidence and we decided to charge him with second-degree murder,” said Deputy Prosecutor Bruce Hanify.
When law enforcement officials arrived at Cordova’s residence at 41 King’s Ranch Road on the outskirts of Forks, they found Coberly unconscious on the ground with a bullet wound to his head and clutching a knife. He later died at Forks Community Hospital.
Although the documents do not clarify why Cordova and Coberly were fighting — “The dispute may have involved a personal grudge or money or both” — two women who accompanied Coberly to Cordova’s residence said that he was not armed when Cordova shot him at point-blank range.
