Cynthia Coffman (murderer)
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Cynthia Lynn Coffman (born January 19, 1962) is an American serial killer convicted in the 1986 deaths of two women in California. She was convicted along with her boyfriend, James Gregory Marlow. Coffman admits to being present at the murders but insists she suffered from battered woman syndrome. She was sentenced to death and is sitting on
death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...
in
Central California Women's Facility Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) is an American women's California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison located in Chowchilla, California. It is across the road from Valley State Prison. CCWF is the second larg ...
.


Background

She was born in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
. After her father left her family, she was raised by her mother. Coffman's mother attempted to give her and her brothers away at one point. By age 18, Coffman married and became a mother, but the marriage did not last long. She moved to Arizona with a friend and met Marlow shortly after he was released from jail. They began to use
methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug use, recreational or Performance-enhancing substance, performance-enhancing drug and less commonly as a secon ...
together, got married, and began to commit violent crimes.


Crimes

Coffman and Marlow were accused of kidnapping and killing four women in October and November 1986. * Sandra Neary (32) on Oct. 11, 1986 from
Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish language, Spanish for "coastal tableland") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including ...
* Pamela Simmons (35) on Oct. 28, 1986 from
Bullhead City, Arizona Bullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, Mohave County, Arizona, United States, south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary servi ...
* Corinna Novis (20) on Nov. 7, 1986 from
Redlands, California Redlands ( ) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The city is located a ...
* Lynel Murray (19) on Nov. 12, 1986 from
Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, United States. The city was originally called Pacific City, but it was changed in 1903 to be named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 as of ...
They were arrested on November 14, 1986, following which Coffman confessed to the murders. Coffman's attorneys say that she loved Marlow but that he battered, brainwashed, and starved her, so she did not run from Marlow when the crime spree began.


Trial and punishment

They were put on trial in July 1989 and in 1990
sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
. Coffman was the first woman to receive a death sentence in California since the reinstatement of the death penalty in that state in 1977. A trial in 1992 convicted her of another murder, for which she received a sentence of
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...
.


See also

*
List of death row inmates in the United States , there were 2,067 death row inmates in the United States, including 46 women. The number of death row inmates changes frequently with new convictions, appellate decisions overturning conviction or sentence alone, commutations, or deaths (throug ...
*
List of serial killers in the United States A serial killer is typically a person who kills three or more people, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines serial murder a ...
*
List of women on death row in the United States This is a list of women on death row in the United States. The number of death row inmates fluctuates daily with new convictions, appellate decisions overturning conviction or sentence alone, commutations, or deaths (through execution or otherwis ...


References

Living people 1962 births 1986 murders in the United States 20th-century American criminals American female serial killers American people convicted of murder American people convicted of kidnapping American people convicted of sodomy American people convicted of robbery American people convicted of burglary American prisoners sentenced to death American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Criminals from St. Louis Female sex offenders People convicted of murder by California Prisoners sentenced to death by California Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by California Serial killers from California Violence against women in California Women sentenced to death {{US-crime-bio-stub