DULUTH, Minn. – A man charged with fatally stabbing his wife in their Duluth apartment, has a history of violent out-of-state convictions against previous partners, court records show.
A Duluth man, originally from Arkansas, is charged with the stabbing death of his 49-year-old wife, Anissa Gay Cope, at their Lincoln Park apartment on Saturday evening. Corddarro Andrew Cope, 37, was taken into custody on Highway I-35 around an hour after the alleged killing by Carlton County Deputies, Minnesota State Troopers, and Duluth Police.
A neighbor called police to the apartment complex at the 600 block of 27th Ave West, telling dispatch she was hearing a “female getting murdered.” The caller also said that they heard a male tell a female to “shut up” and “you better be quiet.”
While on the phone with 911, the neighbor told dispatch that she saw Corddarro leave the apartment, only wearing basketball shorts, before he got into Anissa’s 2017 GMC Sierra truck and drove away.
Officers arrived at the apartment complex on the 600 block of 27th Ave West shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and found Anissa Cope lying in the kitchen with several stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders.
At 8:30 p.m., Carlton County Sheriffs located the GMC truck driving southbound on Highway I-35. The Minnesota State Patrol assisted in a traffic stop on the truck, where Corddarro was taken into custody without incident.
Out-of-state criminal history
Corddarro Cope was born in Arkansas and has previously lived in Missouri, Hawaii, Wisconsin, and, most recently, Minnesota, according to court documents.
Wisconsin court records showed Cope pled guilty to violent offenses in two separate cases. In an October 2018 case involving a woman that Cope was allegedly dating at the time, Douglas County Sheriffs responded to a home in the Town of Summit for a domestic abuse call. The victim told police that when she was staying at the home of her boyfriend (Cope) a few nights prior, he had come into the bedroom angry that she hadn’t cleaned the house. According to a criminal complaint, Cope “dragged her out of the bed across the bedroom and halfway up the stairs.” Through a plea agreement, two of three charges were dismissed by the prosecutor, and Cope was convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery.
As a result of a plea deal in a February 2019 case, Cope was only convicted of misdemeanor battery despite originally facing five charges, including felonies for strangulation and first-degree endangering safety. According to a criminal complaint for the incident, Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a vehicle crash in the Town of Summit. A volunteer firefighter told deputies that the crash was caused by the passenger, Cope, strangling the female driver. The female driver was reportedly the same victim as in the 2018 case. The victim told police that she and Cope were driving home from the bar when Cope became upset and tried to grab the steering wheel. Cope then “grabbed her neck and began strangling her,” which caused the vehicle to roll into the ditch. Cope, however, claimed that during an argument, the victim veered into oncoming traffic, and he only took the wheel to prevent a collision.
