EAST ST. LOUIS -- An East St. Louis man police have been holding for a couple of days in connection with the slaying Friday of Cornelius Goss Jr. was charged Wednesday afternoon.
Darrell Darrough, 25, is charged with the first-degree murder of Goss. The St. Clair County state's attorney's office issued the charge against him shortly after 3 p.m. Bail for Goss is set at $1 million, East St. Louis Detective Mike Floore said. The motive, Floore said, was "the victim touched the suspect's girlfriend inappropriately."
Police were called to 761 N. 79th St. by a man who had come to work on the vacant house there. When police arrived, they found Goss' body lying at the side of the house. He had been stabbed multiple times.
He was pronounced dead at 10:06 a.m. by St. Clair County Deputy Coroner Ace Hart.
News of the arrest and the charge made Goss's mother, Jacqueline Goss, "feel so good." She had nothing but praise for the work done by the East St. Louis Police Department.
She said she knows that no matter what punishment her son's killer is dealt, it won't bring her son back to life. This, she said, saddens her beyond words.
"He was a good person. He didn't have to kill him," she said.
Goss is the second son Jacqueline Goss has lost to the streets of East St. Louis.
She said she is still hoping police find the person who took the life of her other son, Deandre Lawrence, in 2005 outside a store on 115th Street and Broadway Avenue.
Jacqueline Goss said losing a child is very hard, and she prays that young black males stop killing each other. She said the pain a mother feels as a result of someone taking her child's life is almost unbearable.
She said she cannot ask for the death penalty against her son's murderer, but she doesn't want him to get out of jail and have the opportunity to kill any other mother's child.
Nash Funeral Home is officiating the funeral for Goss. A wake is set for 10 a.m. Friday at the Church of Christ in Centreville, just off Old Church Road. The funeral will follow.
Goss' sister Tequilla Smith, 30, said she wants her brother's killer to know he killed a good person.
"Two days before he was killed, he was laying on my bed talking about his plans to return to school to get his GED. ... He was making good changes in his life," Smith said. "He shouldn't have been done like he was. He would never have taken a knife and cut anyone. And he wouldn't have taken a knife and cut somebody up the way he was cut up."
Contact reporter Carolyn P. Smith at csmith@bnd.com or 239-2503.
