NYC Man Pleads Not Guilty in Harvard Shooting

A New York songwriter pleaded not guilty today to murder charges in the shooting at a Harvard dormitory of a man prosecutors say was there to sell drugs. Jabrai Jordan Copney, 20, whose girlfriend is a Harvard senior, traveled to the Cambridge, Mass., campus on Monday with two other men with plans to rob the reputed dealer of money and drugs, prosecutors said. A pound of marijuana and $1,000 in cash were found near where the victim was shot.

Copney and his two companions, who have not been publicly identified, had arranged to meet the victim, Justin Cosby, 21, at the dorm on Monday afternoon, authorities said. Cosby was a resident of Cambridge but was not a student at Harvard. Prosecutors said they were reserving judgment on who the actual shooter was. The two other men involved in the confrontation remained at large. Cosby died Tuesday of his injuries. (More Harvard stories.)