Serial Killers | Murder Database

Velma Barfield Confesses To Seven Murders

Velma Barfield was a female serial killer from North Carolina who was executed for a murder and would later confess to six more.

Velma Barfield first marriage was to Thomas Burke who had a problem with alcohol while Velma was struggling with a drug addiction. Velma would take the kids and leave however when she returned the house and Thomas Burke were lost to a fire

Velma Barfield would then marry Jennings Barfield who would die a year later from heart complications

Velma Barfields mother Linda would start to have health problems and would be admitted to the hospital and later released. A year later Linda was readmitted to the hospital with the same symptoms and would pass away

Velma Barfield began to care for the elderly working for Montgomery and Dollie Edwards. Dollie Edwards would die a few month later

Velma Barfield would start to work for an elderly couple Record and John Lee, John would pass away a few months later

Velma Barfield began to date Rowland Stuart Taylor who was a relation to Dollie Edwards, she began to steal from him shortly after and decided the best way not to get caught was to kill him. Velma would poison him with arsenic

Velma Barfield would be arrested and charged for the murder of Rowland Stuart Taylor. Authorities took a closer look at her life and would exhume the bodies of her second husband Jennings Barfield and turns out he had arsenic in his system.

Velma Barfield would be convicted of the murder of Rowland Taylor and sentenced to death. She would later confess to the murders of Linda Bullard, Dollie, and John Henry Lee.

Velma Barfield was executed on November 2, 1984

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When was Velma Barfield executed

Velma Barfield execution was on November 2, 1984

How was Velma Barfield executed

Velma Barfield was executed by lethal injection

Velma Barfield Execution

After two marriages ended with the death of her husbands, by 1977 Velma Barfield was in a relationship with Stuart Taylor, who was a widower and tobacco farmer. As she had been doing for years, she forged checks on Taylor’s account to pay for her addiction to prescription drugs. Fearing that she had been found out, she mixed an arsenic based rat poison into his beer and tea. Taylor became very ill and Velma volunteered to nurse him. As his condition worsened she took him to hospital where he died a few days later.

Unfortunately for her there was an autopsy which found that the cause of Taylor’s death was arsenic poisoning and Barfield was arrested and charged with his murder. At the trial her defense pleaded insanity but this was not accepted and she was convicted. The jury recommended the death sentence. Velma appeared cold and uncaring on the stand and actually gave the District Attorney a round of applause when he made his closing speech.

Velma later confessed to the 1974 murder of her own mother (in whose name she had taken out a loan) and of two elderly people, John Henry Lee (by whom she was being paid as a housekeeper/caregiver) and Dollie Edwards (a relative of Stuart Taylor). Barfield always attended the funerals of her victims and appeared to grieve genuinely for them.

The body of her late husband, Thomas Barfield, was later exhumed and also found to contain traces of arsenic. Velma denied that she had killed him. Her motives for these four murders were the same. She had misappropriated money from her victims and then according to her, tried to make them ill so she could nurse them whilst finding another job to enable her to repay the money. Needless to say, the jury was less than impressed by this defense.

Velma Barfield gained notoriety as the “Death Row Granny,” becoming the first woman to be executed in the U.S. since 1962, and the first since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/barfield029.htm

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Judy Buenoano Murders 2 In Florida

Judy Buenoano is a female serial killer who would be executed in Florida for two murders but is believed to be responsible for many more.

Judy Buenoano would marry her first husband James Goodyear who would pass away in a case doctors thought were natural causes

Judy Buenoano would have a relationship with Bobby Morris who would die in his sleep five years later

Judy Buenoano son would become disabled because of an illness and would later drown

Judy Buenoano would begin another relationship with John Gentry who would be severely injured when his car exploded

When police began to investigate the car bombing they took a closer look at Judy Buenano and the amount of death that followed her. Turns out before the car bombing Judy had been giving John Gentry vitamins that were laced with arsenic

Investigators would exhume the bodies of her first husband, her son and Bobby Morris all of which had traces of arsenic in their systems

Judy Buenoano would be arrested, convicted in the murder of James Goodyear in which she was sentenced to death. Judy would receive a life sentence for the murder of her son and 15 years in prison for the attempted murder of John Gentry

Judy Buenoano would be executed by way of the electric chair on March 30 1998

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When was Judy Buenoano executed

Judy Buenoano was executed on March 30 1998

How was Judy Buenoano executed

Judy Buenoano was executed by way of the electric chair

Judy Buenoano Execution

Gone were the painted, manicured fingernails and the fashionable dark hair. Gone was the tough-edged woman who drove around Pensacola in a Corvette and told bigger-than-life stories about her life, her businesses and her Chanel perfume.

Judy Buenoano walked shakily to Florida’s electric chair Monday, her head freshly shaved. Guards had covered it with gel – highlighting every bump, every vein – to conduct the electricity better. She wasn’t the same person who had boasted that Florida would never execute her. She was, simply, an old, frightened woman.

And by 7:13 a.m., Judy Buenoano, 54, had become the first woman executed in the state in 150 years and the first woman to die in the chair.

Prosecutors called Buenoano the “Black Widow,” saying she attracted men to kill them for insurance money. She was executed for killing her Vietnam veteran husband with arsenic in Orlando 27 years ago, but Pensacola juries also found her guilty of drowning her paralyzed son in 1980 and trying to firebomb her boyfriend in 1983.

She had gotten about $240,000 in insurance money from the deaths of her husband, son and a common-law husband who died of arsenic poisoning in Colorado in 1978. Prosecutors said she had used some of the money for a new car, for a diamond ring, to start her nail salon, to live the high life.

She might have gotten away with her crimes, they said, if she hadn’t botched the bombing and left a trail back to her.

Florida had not executed a woman since 1848, when a freed slave was hanged for killing her former master. Because of that, Buenoano’s death attracted widespread media attention. Early Monday, lights from TV cameras and satellite trucks rivaled those beaming from Florida State Prison. Reporters outnumbered protesters.

Judy Buenoano met with her two children, a cousin and her spiritual adviser through the night. They had Communion and a final contact visit. Buenoano dozed from 1 until 4 a.m., when she received a last meal of steamed vegetables, fresh strawberries and hot tea.

Throughout Sunday, she had been talkative and upbeat, a corrections spokesman said.

But when she entered the death chamber shortly after 7 a.m., Buenoano held tightly to the hands of two male guards who helped her walk. She was pale and terrified. But she seemed determined to face her death with a kind of stoic dignity.

As authorities strapped her in, she grimaced, especially as they tightened the belt around her chest. Through most of the preparations, she kept her eyes shut, not looking at the people who gathered to watch, including her spiritual adviser and the brother-in-law of Air Force Sgt. James Goodyear, her poisoned husband.

Asked whether she had a last statement, Judy Buenoano said in a barely audible voice, “No, sir.” Moments later, as the current flowed, her fists clenched. She seemed almost dwarfed in the 75-year-old oak chair. Smoke rose from the electrode attached to her right leg.

The witnesses watched silently. In the front row sat Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry, who prosecuted Buenoano in 1984. Next to him was Dusty Rhodes, who as a state attorney investigator had gathered evidence against Buenoano in the Goodyear case.

The two had become experts on arsenic. They had watched the exhumation of Goodyear’s body to check for poison. They had tracked down a witness who said Buenoano told her not to divorce her husband but instead kill him with arsenic. But you’ll need the stomach for it, the friend quoted Buenoano as telling her.

Perry and Rhodes called Judy Buenoano a cold, calculating killer.

“It was very serene, clinical,” Perry said of the execution. “It brings finality and a final chapter in this saga.”

As they drove home from Starke on Monday, the two talked about how Buenoano’s death had been humane compared with the agony Goodyear endured and the pain her 19-year-old son, Michael, felt as he drowned in a river with braces on his arms and legs.

But family members described a different Judy Buenoano. They called her a devoted Roman Catholic, a beloved mother and grandmother, a woman who had had a tough childhood but went on to raise a family of her own. They said the case against her was circumstantial and called prosecutors overzealous and high courts cowardly for not setting aside her death sentence.

Sunday, before they entered the prison to say goodbye to their mother, Buenoano’s daughter, Kimberly Hawkins, and son, James Buenoano, stood before cameras and asked the state not to commit a “hate crime against God and humanity.”

The pleas did not work. The courts refused a last-minute stay.

Twelve civilian and 12 media witnesses, plus corrections officials, were stuffed into a tiny room separated by glass from the death chamber. Female guards were brought in to be with Buenoano in her final days. One of them walked into the chamber with Buenoano, but male guards handled the execution.

Outside, death-penalty opponents and supporters waited for word on the execution – the third in Florida in eight days.

Members of Pax Christi, a state group organized with the Roman Catholic Church, held signs that read Buenoano is “a woman not a spider.”

“Executions are just an excuse for vengeance toward people,” said Martina Linnenahm, a member of the group.

Death-penalty supporters included Larin Cone, whose brother, Floyd Jr., was killed in 1981 when Edward Kennedy escaped from prison and shot him and a state trooper to death. Kennedy was executed in 1992.

Cone said Judy Buenoano did not deserve mercy because of her gender. “She killed just like a man,” Cone said, “so she should receive the same treatment as a man.”

Wayne Manning of Lawtey had a day off from work, so he brought his 7-year-old grandson, Steven, to the prison.

“He needs to learn what is going on in this world,” Manning said. “Maybe he won’t get into a situation like this, himself, if he is exposed to it now.”

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1998-03-31-9803310252-story.html

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Aileen Wuornos Murders 7 Men

Aileen Wuornos was a female serial killer who was from Florida and would be executed for the murders of seven men.

Aileen Wuornos was a prostitute who switched to killing the men who had the misfortune of picking her up. During her reign Aileen Wuornos would murder seven men. Now Aileen Wuornos would tell police that the men attempted to or did sexually assault her and that may have been the case in some of the cases but not all

Aileen Wuornos would be arrested, convicted, sentenced to death and executed on October 9, 2002

Aileen Wuornos Victims

Richard Charles Mallory – Richard Charles Mallory owned an electronic store in Clearwater Florida. As mentioned he was a convicted rapist who spent time in prison. Aileen claimed that she was severely beaten and sodomized. Police would find his vehicle abandoned on December 1, 1989 and would find his body two days later, he had been shot several times. Mallory was fifty one years old
David Andrew Spears – David Andrew Spears was a construction worker from Winter Garden Florida who was declared missing on May 19 1990. Spears body would be found on June 1, 1990 he had been shot several times.
Charles Edmund Carskaddon – Charles Edmund Carskaddon was a rodeo worker whose body was found on June 6, 1990. He was wrapped up in a blanket and shot multiple times. Carskaddon was forty years old
Peter Abraham Siems – Peter Abraham Siers left Jupiter Florida for Arkansas in June 1990 and his car was found on July 4 1990. Aileen Wuornos and Tyria Moore were seen abandoning the car as well as Aileen hand print was found in the vehicle. Peter Abraham Siems body was never found. Siems was sixty five years old
Troy Eugene Burress – Troy Eugene Burress was a sausage salesman whose body was found on August 4, 1990 five days after he was reported missing. Burress was fifty years old and had been shot twice
Charles Richard “Dick” Humphreys – Charles Richard Humphreys was fifty six years old and a former US Air Force Major and a former Chief Of Police. On September 11, 1990 his body was found fully clothed and shot twice. He was fifty six years old
Walter Jeno Antonio – Walter Jen Antonio was sixty two year old and a truck driver and security guard. Antonio was found on November 19, 1990, he had been shot four times

Aileen Wuornos Photos

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When was Aileen Wuornos executed

Aileen Wuornos was executed on October 9, 2002

How was Aileen Wuornos executed

Aileen Wuornos was executed by lethal injection

Aileen Wuornos Execution

Even for the witnesses, there was no escape.

At 9:28 a.m., a guard shut the door we had just walked through and locked it from the inside. All of Florida State Prison was on lockdown Wednesday morning, the exercise yards and work fields eerily empty beneath a low gray sky. All of the roughly 1,200 inmates housed here — except one — were in their cells.

Now the room where we’d watch Aileen Wuornos die was sealed, too.

The guard pointed me to a seat in the last of four rows. There were 29 people in the room, including six relatives of Wuornos’ victims, 12 journalists, a state prosecutor and various Department of Corrections officials.

We sat ramrod straight, staring at the brown curtain that separated the large viewing window from the execution chamber. Two speakers were mounted on opposite ends of the wall above the window. All was silent, except for the hum of a Friedrich air conditioner set on low cool in the rear corner.

We were a captive audience, brought together to witness the aptly bizarre end of a twisted life. We had different viewpoints, different roles, different feelings, but for 20 excruciatingly long minutes, we sat together as a killer was killed. There wasn’t an inattentive eye in the house.

But after the ritualized pageant was over, after she stiffened and turned blue and two men with stethoscopes leaned over her body and officially pronounced her dead at 9:47 a.m., I didn’t feel nearly as disturbed as I would have thought. And that was disturbing in itself.

At 9:29 a.m., the curtain opened. Wuornos was strapped onto a gurney, with a needle leading to two intravenous tubes poked into the fleshy bend of her right arm. Her mouth and lips were moving, but we could not hear. The microphone dangling above her was off, our wall speakers mute.

Her eyes were open, darting to the side from her restrained head to quickly survey the witness room.

“She seemed a little surprised to see so many people,” Terri Griffith, who sat in the front row, said later. Her father, Charles Humphreys, was one of seven men Wuornos confessed to murdering. “I know she appreciated the attention.”

Wuornos was tucked beneath a white sheet, which was folded with military precision under her feet and around her neck and shoulders. She looked like a made bed. The only visible parts of her body: her head and her right arm.

Final statement

The digital clock on the wall above her changed to 9:30.

The microphone was turned on.

“Do you have a final statement?” she was asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the Rock, and I’ll be back. Like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6, just like the movie, big mother ship and all. I’ll be back.”

She spoke in a barely audible voice, with speech that seemed slurred even though officials said she did not request or receive a sedative in her final hours. I could hardly make out a word, the low volume and air conditioner causing those of us in the back corner to exchange horrified glances and whisper, “What’d she say? I couldn’t hear.”

Later, on the van ride back to the media area, those closer to the speakers helped to reconstruct her words.

As to what they meant, nobody could figure that out.

“She was off her rocker,” Griffith said.

“She’s totally off the wall,” said Wanda Pouncey of Boynton Beach, whose father, Troy Burress, was killed by Wuornos.

That conclusion was echoed by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made a documentary about Wuornos and is working on another. He had the final interview with her on Tuesday. After complaining about the “sonic waves” that were controlling her mind, she flipped him off and stormed out of the session prematurely.

“She’s obsessed and crazed, has totally lost her mind,” Broomfield said. “She trusts nobody and is stark raving mad. She’s multiple people. Every time I met her, she was a different person.”

It’s a point that Fort Lauderdale attorney Raag Singhal made, to no avail, in a letter to the Florida Supreme Court last month. Singhal represented Wuornos earlier this year, but they weren’t on speaking terms at the end. She was found competent to be executed after a psychiatric evaluation last week.

I traveled with Singhal to Starke, then found myself boarding the van to the witness room when two journalists didn’t claim their spots. As second alternate in the media lottery, I thought I’d be covering this execution from outside.

But at 9:30 a.m., when it came time for the matter of the State of Florida vs. Wuornos to reach its conclusion after 12 years, I got to see it for myself. The woman who once said she’d kill again because she had “hate crawling through her system,” now had a chemical cocktail coursing through her veins. The executioner, who could not be seen behind a two-way mirror, first released two syringes of sodium pentothol, which rendered her unconscious. Then came two syringes of pancuronium bromide, which paralyzed the muscles, and two syringes of potassium chloride, which stopped the heart.

The next 17 minutes were agonizingly slow, and she didn’t move a muscle, although her heart fluttered a bit on the monitors until she completely flat-lined. Then the doctors in white coats came out. The curtain was drawn, the door was unlocked and we filed back outside to the vans that would take us back to the rest of our lives.

I made it home in time for dinner.

Simple ritual

No matter how you feel about the death penalty, watching another human being get put to death is not supposed to be easy. But this was all so smooth, so clinical, so antiseptic, that it was disturbingly easy.

Too easy for everyone.

Victims’ relatives thought it was too easy for Wuornos, whose chest heaved once and whose eyes shut before reopening ever so slightly, in tiny slits, after the lethal mix of chemicals pumped through her veins. With vengeance and bloodlust, some relatives said they wanted to see her suffer more, preferably in the electric chair with flames and smoke shooting.

It was too easy for Gov. Jeb Bush, who carried out two executions on consecutive Wednesdays a month before an election. Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco came last week, Wuornos this week. It was an especially distasteful coincidence considering there hadn’t been an execution since January 2001 and there are now major constitutional issues concerning the death penalty in Florida that should be sorted out by courts.

And it’s too easy to say Wuornos was evil incarnate, unrepentant and a willing participant in her own death. She was all those things, but she was also obviously mentally ill. After hearing her final statement and hearing about her bizarre behavior, I don’t know how any civilized society can take satisfaction in proclaiming her mentally fit before putting her down like a rabid dog.

Outside, somebody later remarked that anyone who kills more than one person is probably inherently insane.

Florida has killed 53 people since the death penalty resumed in 1976, administered in a way that often seems arbitrary and unfair.

What does that make us?

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2002-10-10-0210100259-story.html

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Cynthia Coffman Murders 5 People

Cynthia Coffman is a woman from California who would be convicted of the murders of five people

Cynthia Coffman and her boyfriend James Marlow would kidnap, sexually assault and murder at least five young woman in Nevada and California. Cynthia Coffman and James Marlow would finally be arrested and brought to trial

At her trial Cynthia Coffman would admit to helping kill four of the victims however she stated that she was forced to by James Marlow. The jury would not buy it and would find Coffman guilty of murder and sentenced her to death. James Marlow would also be sentenced to death.

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Where Is Cynthia Coffman Now

Cynthia Coffman is currently incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility

Cynthia Coffman Court Case

On Friday, November 7, 1986, around 5:30 p.m., Corinna Novis cashed a check at a First Interstate Bank drive-through window near the Redlands Mall, after leaving her job at a State Farm Insurance office in Redlands. Novis, who was alone, was driving her new white Honda CRX automobile. Novis had been scheduled for a manicure at a nail salon owned by her friend Terry Davis; she never arrived for the appointment. Novis also had planned to meet friends at a pizza parlor by 7:00 that evening, but she never appeared. That same day, Cynthia Coffman and Marlow went to the Redlands Mall, where Marlow’s sister, Veronica Koppers, worked in a deli restaurant. Between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m., Veronica pointed the couple out to her supervisor as they sat in the mall outside the deli. Cynthia Coffman was wearing a dress; Marlow, a suit and tie.

Later, at the time they had arranged to pick Veronica up from work, Coffman and Marlow entered the deli and handed Veronica her car keys, explaining they had a ride. Around 7:30 p.m., Coffman and Marlow brought Novis to the residence of Richard Drinkhouse. Drinkhouse, who was recovering from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident and having some difficulty walking, was home alone in the living room watching television when the three arrived. Marlow was wearing dress trousers; Coffman was still wearing a dress; and Novis wore jeans and a black and green top and had a suit jacket draped over her shoulders. Marlow told Drinkhouse they needed to use the bedroom, and the three walked down the hallway. The women entered the bedroom. Marlow returned to the living room and told Drinkhouse they needed to talk to the girl so they could “get her ready teller number” in order to “rob” her bank account. Drinkhouse complained about the intrusion into his house and asked Marlow if he were crazy. Marlow replied in the negative and assured Drinkhouse “there won’t be any witnesses. How is she going to talk to anybody if she’s under a pile of rocks?” Drinkhouse asked Marlow to leave with the women. Marlow declined, saying he was waiting for Veronica to bring some clothing. He told Drinkhouse to stay on the couch and watch television. Knowing Marlow had a gun and having previously observed him fight and beat another man, and also being aware of his own physical disability, Drinkhouse was afraid to leave the house.

At one point, when Drinkhouse appeared to be preparing to leave, he saw Cynthia Coffman, in the hallway, gesture to Marlow, who came out of the bedroom to ask where he was going. Drinkhouse then returned to his seat on the couch in front of the television. Veronica arrived at the Drinkhouse residence 10 to 15 minutes after Coffman, Marlow and Novis. Marlow came out of the bedroom, told Veronica he “had someone [t]here” and cautioned her not to “freak out” on him. Marlow said he needed something from the car; Coffman and Veronica went outside and returned with a brown tote bag.

About 10 minutes later, Coffman drove Veronica to a nearby 7-Eleven store in Novis’s car, leaving Marlow in the bedroom with Novis. Drinkhouse heard Novis ask Marlow if they were going to take her home; Marlow answered, “As soon as they get back.” Veronica testified that, during this period, Coffman did not appear frightened or ask her for help in escaping from Marlow. Drinkhouse likewise testified Coffman appeared to be going along willingly with what Marlow was doing. Upon returning from the 7-Eleven store, Coffman entered the bedroom where Marlow was holding Novis prisoner and remained with them for 10 to 15 minutes.

During this time, Drinkhouse heard the shower running. After the shower was turned off, Marlow emerged from the bedroom wearing pants but no shoes or shirt; he had a towel over his shoulders and appeared to be wet. He walked over to Veronica, said, “We’ve got the number,” and started going through a purse, removing a wallet and identification. Marlow then returned to the bedroom with the purse. Veronica left the house. About five minutes later, Coffman, dressed in jeans, emerged from the bedroom, followed by Novis, handcuffed and with duct tape over her mouth, and Marlow. Novis’s hair appeared to be wet. The three then left the house. Drinkhouse never saw Novis again. Marlow and Coffman returned the following afternoon to ask if Drinkhouse wanted to buy an answering machine or knew anyone who might. When Drinkhouse responded negatively, the two left. Novis’s body was found eight days later, on November 15, in a shallow grave in a vineyard in Fontana. She was missing a fingernail on her left hand, and her shoes and one earring were gone. An earring belonging to Novis was later found in Coffman’s purse.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Gregory Reiber performed an autopsy on November 17. Dr. Reiber concluded that Novis had been killed between five and 10 days previously. Marks on the outside of her neck, injuries to her neck muscles and a fracture of her thyroid cartilage suggested ligature strangulation as the cause of death, but suffocation was another possible cause of death due to the presence of a large amount of soil in the back of her mouth. Marks on her wrists were consistent with handcuffs, and sperm were found in her rectum, although there was no sign of trauma to her anus.

When Novis uncharacteristically failed to appear for work on Monday, November 10, without calling or having given notice of an intended absence, her supervisor, Jean Cramer, went to Novis’s apartment to check on her. Cramer noticed Novis’s car was not parked there, the front door was ajar, and the bedroom was in some disarray. Cramer reported these observations to police, who found no sign of a forced entry. Terry Davis went to Novis’s apartment later that day and determined Novis’s answering machine and typewriter were missing.3 Around 9:30 p.m. on Friday, November 7, the night Novis apparently was killed, Veronica Koppers visited her friend Irene Cardona and tried to sell her an answering machine, later identified as the one taken from Novis’s apartment. Cardona accompanied Veronica, Coffman and Marlow to the house of a friend, who agreed to trade the answering machine for a half-gram of methamphetamine.

The next day, Debra Hawkins bought the answering machine that Cardona had traded. The Redlands Police Department eventually recovered the machine. Harold Brigham, the proprietor of the Sierra Jewelry and Loan in Fontana, testified that on November 8, Coffman pawned a typewriter, using Novis’s identification. Victoria Rotstein, the assistant manager of a Taco Bell on Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, testified that between 11:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. one night in early November 1986, after the restaurant had closed for the evening, a woman came to the locked door and began shaking it. When told the restaurant was closed, the woman started cursing, only to run off when Rotstein said she was going to call the police. Rotstein identified Coffman in a photo lineup and a physical lineup, but did not identify her at trial.

On November 11, 1986, the Taco Bell manager found a bag near a trash receptacle behind the restaurant; inside the bag were Coffman’s and Novis’s drivers’ licenses, Novis’s checks and bank card, and various identification papers belonging to Marlow. The day after Novis’s disappearance, Marlow, Cynthia Coffman and Veronica Koppers returned to Paul Koppers’s home; Marlow asked him if he could get any “cold,” i.e., nontraceable, license plates for the car. On the morning of November 12, Marlow and Coffman returned to Paul Koppers’s residence, where they told him they had been down to “the beach,” “casing out the rich people, looking for somebody to rip off.” Koppers asked Marlow if he knew where Veronica was; after placing two telephone calls, Coffman learned Veronica was in police custody. On the Koppers’ coffee table, Marlow saw a newspaper containing an article about Novis’s disappearance with a photograph of her car. Marlow told Cynthia Coffman they had to get rid of the car.

Paul Koppers refused Marlow’s request to leave some property at his house. Cynthia Coffman and Marlow left the Koppers residence and drove to Big Bear, where they checked into the Bavarian Lodge using a credit card belonging to one Lynell Murray (other evidence showed defendants had killed Murray on November 12). Their subsequent purchases using Murray’s credit card alerted authorities to their whereabouts, and they were arrested on November 14 as they were walking on Big Bear Boulevard, wearing bathing suits despite the cold weather. Cynthia Coffman had a loaded .22-caliber gun in her purse. Novis’s abandoned car was found on a dirt road south of Santa’s Village, about a quarter-mile off Highway 18. Despite Coffman’s efforts to wipe their fingerprints from the car, her prints were found on the license plate, hood and ashtray; a print on the hood of the car was identified as Marlow’s.

A resident of the Big Bear area later found discarded on his property a pair of gray slacks with handcuffs in the pocket, as well as a receipt and clothing from the Alpine Sports Center, where Cynthia Coffman and Marlow had made purchases.

Marlow’s Case Dr. Robert Bucklin, a forensic pathologist, reviewed the autopsy report and related testimony by Dr. Reiber. Based on the lack of anal tearing or other trauma, Dr. Bucklin opined there was insufficient evidence to establish that Novis had suffered anal penetration. He also questioned Dr. Reiber’s conclusion that Novis might have been suffocated, as opposed to aspirating sandy material during the killing or coming into contact with it during the burial process.

Coffman’s Case Cynthia Coffman testified on her own behalf, describing her relationship with Marlow, his threats and violence toward her, and other murders in which, out of fear that he would harm her or her son, she had participated with him while nonetheless lacking any intent to kill. Coffman also presented the testimony of Dr. Lenore Walker, a psychologist and expert on battered woman syndrome, in support of her defense that she lacked the intent to kill. The trial court admitted much of this evidence over Marlow’s objections. Coffman testified she was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1962 and, following her graduation from high school, gave birth to a son, Joshua, in August 1980. Shortly thereafter she married Joshua’s father, Ron Coffman, from whom she separated in April 1982. In April 1984, Coffman left St. Louis for Arizona, leaving Joshua in his father’s care, intending to come back for him when she was settled in Arizona. Cynthia Coffman testified that when she met Marlow in April 1986, she was involved in a steady relationship with Doug Huntley. She and Huntley had lived in Page, Arizona, before moving to Barstow, where Huntley took a job in construction. Cynthia Coffman, who previously had worked as a bartender and waitress, was briefly employed in Barstow and also sold methamphetamine.

In April 1986, both Cynthia Coffman and Huntley were arrested after an altercation at a 7-Eleven store in which Coffman pulled a gun on several men who were “hassling” Huntley and “ going to jump him.” Charged with possession of a loaded weapon and methamphetamine, Coffman was released after five days. The day after she was released, Marlow, whom she had never met, showed up at the apartment she shared with Huntley. Marlow said he had been in jail with Huntley and had told him he would check on Coffman to make sure she was all right. Cynthia Coffman and Marlow spent about an hour together on that occasion and smoked some marijuana. After Huntley’s release, he and Cynthia Coffman visited Marlow at the Barstow motel where Marlow was staying.

By June 1986, Huntley was again in custody and Cynthia Coffman was preparing to leave him when Marlow reappeared at her apartment. At Marlow’s request, Coffman drove him to the home of his cousin, Debbie Schwab, in Fontana; while there, he purchased methamphetamine. Within a few days, Coffman moved with Marlow to Newberry Springs, where they stayed with Marlow’s friends Steve and Karen Schmitt. During this period, Marlow told her he was a hit man, a martial arts expert and a White supremacist, and that he had killed Black people in prison. In Newberry Springs, Cynthia Coffman testified, Marlow for the first time tied her up and beat her after accusing her of flirting with another man. During this episode, his demeanor and voice changed; she referred to this persona as Folsom Wolf, after the prison where Marlow had been incarcerated, and over the course of her testimony identified several other occasions when Marlow had seemed to become Wolf and behaved violently toward her. After this initial beating, he apologized, said it would never happen again, and treated her better for a couple of days. She discovered he had taken her address book containing her son’s and parents’ addresses and phone numbers, and he refused to give it back. He became critical of the way she did things and when angry with her would call her names. He refused to let her go anywhere without him, saying that if she ever left him, he would kill her son and family. After some weeks in Newberry Springs, Marlow told Cynthia Coffman his father had died and left him some property in Kentucky and that they would go there. Cynthia Coffman would get her son back, he suggested, and they would live together in Kentucky or else sell everything and move somewhere else. Marlow prevailed on her to steal a friend’s truck for the journey; after having it repainted black, they set off. Not long before they left, Marlow bit her fingernails down to the quick.

They went by way of Colorado, where they stayed with a former supervisor of Marlow’s, Gene Kelly, who discussed the possibility of Marlow’s working for him again in Georgia. They then passed through St. Louis. Arriving in the evening and reaching her parents by telephone at midnight, Cynthia Coffman was told it was too late for her to visit that night; the next morning, Marlow told her there was no time for her to see her son. Accordingly, although Cynthia Coffman had not seen her son since Christmas 1984, they drove straight to Kentucky. On arriving, they stayed with Marlow’s friend Greg (“Lardo”) Lyons and his wife Linda in the town of Pine Knot. Marlow informed Cynthia Coffman the real reason for the trip was to carry out a contract killing on a “snitch.” Once they had located the intended victim’s house, Marlow told her she was to do the killing. She protested, but ultimately did as he directed, carrying a gun, fashioning her bandana into a halter top, and luring the victim out of his house on the pretext of needing help with her car. When the victim, who had a gun tucked into his belt, had come to the spot where their truck was parked and was taking a look under the hood, Marlow appeared and demanded to know what the man was doing with his sister. Marlow then grabbed the man’s gun. Cynthia Coffman testified she heard a shot go off, but did not see what happened. Cynthia Coffman and Marlow returned to Lyons’s home. Sometime later, Marlow and Lyons left the house and returned with a wad of money. Cynthia Coffman counted it: there was $5,000. Coffman testified that Marlow subjected her to several severe beatings in Kentucky. In mid-August 1986, they drove to Atlanta, where Marlow told her he had a job. While in a bar after his fourth day working for Gene Kelly, Marlow became angry at Cynthia Coffman. That night, in their hotel room, he began beating her, took a pair of scissors, threatened to cut her eye out, and then cut off all her hair. He forced her out of the motel room without her clothes, let her back in and forcibly sodomized her.

Marlow failed to show up for work the next day and was fired. They then returned to Kentucky, where they unsuccessfully attempted a burglary and spent time going on “pot hunts,” i.e., searching rural areas for marijuana plants to steal. Just before they left Kentucky to go to Arizona, they stole a station wagon. Back in Arizona, they burglarized Doug Huntley’s parents’ house and stole a safe. After opening it to find only some papers and 10 silver dollars, they took the coins and buried the safe in the desert. Returning to Newberry Springs and again briefly staying with the Schmitts, they sold the stolen car and stole two rings belonging to their hosts, pawning one and trading the other for methamphetamine. From Newberry Springs, in early October 1986, Marlow and Cynthia Coffman took a bus to Fontana, where they again stayed with Marlow’s cousins, the Schwabs. During that visit, Marlow tattooed Coffman’s buttocks with the words “Property of Folsom Wolf” and her ring finger with the letters “W-O-L-F” and lightning bolts, telling her it was a wedding ring. Leaving the Schwab residence in late October, they hitchhiked to the house of Rita Robbeloth and her son Curtis, who were friends of Marlow’s sister, Veronica. From there, Veronica brought Cynthia Coffman and Marlow to the home she shared with her husband, Paul, and his brother, Steve.

At the Robbeloth residence one day, Cynthia Coffman, Marlow and Veronica were sharing some methamphetamine, and Marlow became enraged over Coffman’s request for an equal share. Although Cynthia Coffman quickly backed down, Marlow began punching her and threatened to leave her by the side of the road. Later, back at the Koppers residence, Marlow continued to beat, kick and threaten to kill her, forced her to consume four pills he told her were cyanide, extinguished a cigarette on her face and stabbed her in the leg, rendering her unconscious for a day and unable to walk for two days. Cynthia Coffman recounted how she and Marlow, along with Veronica, left the Koppers residence and came to stay at the Drinkhouse residence the night before they abducted Novis.

On the morning of November 7, 1986, Marlow told her to put on a dress, saying they would not be able to rob anyone if they were not dressed nicely. Marlow borrowed a suit from Curtis Robbeloth and told Cynthia Coffman they had to “get a girl.” She testified she did not understand he intended to kill the girl. After dropping Veronica off at her job, Coffman and Marlow drove around in Veronica’s car looking for someone to rob. Eventually they parked in front of the Redlands Mall. When they saw Novis’s white car pull up in front of them and Novis enter the mall, Marlow said, “That is the one we are going to get,” despite Coffman’s protests that the girl was too young to have money. He directed Coffman to get out of the car and ask Novis for a ride when the latter returned to her car. Cynthia Coffman complied, asking Novis if she could give them a ride to the University of Redlands. When Novis agreed, Marlow got in the two-seater car with Coffman on his lap. As Novis drove, Marlow took the gun from Coffman, displayed it and told Novis to pull over. Then Coffman drove while Novis, handcuffed, sat on Marlow’s lap. He told Novis they were going to a friend’s house and directed Cynthia Coffman to the Drinkhouse residence, where they arrived between 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. When Novis told them she had something to do that evening, Marlow assured her, “Oh, you’ll make it where you are going. Don’t worry.” As Marlow went in and out of the bedroom at the Drinkhouse residence, Coffman sat with Novis. When Novis asked if she was going to be allowed to leave, Cynthia Coffman told her to do what Marlow said and he would let her go. Showing Novis the stab wound on her leg, Coffman told her Marlow was “just crazy.” Marlow dispatched Coffman to make coffee and proceeded to try to get Novis to disclose her personal identification number (PIN).

Finally Novis gave him a number. Marlow then taped Novis’s mouth and said, “We are going to take a shower.” He removed Novis’s clothes and put her, still handcuffed, into the shower. Cynthia Coffman testified he told her (Coffman) to get into the shower, but she refused. Thinking Marlow was going to rape Novis, Cynthia Coffman testified she “turned around” and “walked away” into the living room. There she retrieved her jeans and returned to the bedroom to get dressed. Cynthia Coffman denied either arousing Marlow sexually or having anything to do with anything that happened in the shower. When Marlow told her to dress Novis, Cynthia Coffman responded that if he uncuffed her, she could do so herself. He removed the handcuffs to permit Novis to dress, then handcuffed her again to a bedpost.

Around this time, Veronica arrived at the Drinkhouse residence. Marlow took Novis’s purse, directed Veronica to get his bag out of her car, and told Cynthia Coffman and his sister to go to the store, where they bought sodas and cigarettes. Back at the Drinkhouse residence, Veronica departed and, soon thereafter, Marlow, Coffman and Novis left, with Coffman driving and Novis, duct tape on her mouth, handcuffed, and covered with blankets, in the back of the car. Marlow told Coffman to drive to their drug connection in Fontana, but directed her into a vineyard. There, Marlow and Novis got out of the car, and he removed her handcuffs and tape. He explained they could not bring a stranger to the drug connection’s house, so he would wait there with Novis while Cynthia Coffman scored the dope. They walked off, with Marlow carrying a blanket and a bag containing a shovel.

Cynthia Coffman testified she felt confused at that point because she possessed only $15, insufficient funds for a drug purchase. Believing Marlow intended to rape Novis, she backed the car out of the vineyard, parked down the street and smoked a cigarette. When she returned, no one was there. She could hear the sound of digging. Some 10 to 15 minutes later Marlow reappeared, alone. Without speaking, he threw some items into the back of the car and, after Cynthia Coffman had driven for a while, began to hit her and berated her for driving away. They returned to the Robbeloth residence, where Marlow changed clothes.

Next they drove to a First Interstate Bank branch, but were unable to access Novis’s account because she had given them the wrong PIN. From there, around 9:30 p.m., they went to Novis’s apartment and, after a search, found a card on which Novis had written her PIN. They also took a typewriter, a telephone answering machine and a small amount of cash. They returned to the Robbeloth residence, where Marlow spoke with Veronica, who then drove them around unsuccessfully looking for a friend to buy the answering machine.

Leaving Veronica around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., Cynthia Coffman and Marlow tried again to access Novis’s account, only to learn there was not enough money in the account to enable them to withdraw funds using the automated teller. They returned to the Drinkhouse residence.

The next morning, Veronica joined them around 8:00 or 9:00. After trying again to sell the answering machine, they pawned the typewriter for $50 and bought some methamphetamine. That afternoon Cynthia Coffman and Marlow went to Lytle Creek to dispose of Novis’s belongings. Cynthia Coffman had not asked Marlow what had happened to Novis; she testified she did not want to know and thought he had left her tied up in the vineyard. They returned to the Drinkhouse residence around 5:00 p.m.

Later that evening, after trading the answering machine for some methamphetamine in the transaction described in Irene Cardona’s testimony, Coffman and Marlow went with Veronica to the Koppers residence, where they “did some speed” and developed a plan to go to the beach in Orange County on Marlow’s theory that “it would be easier to get money down there because all rich people live down at the beach.” Veronica drove Coffman and Marlow back to Novis’s car, which they drove to Huntington Beach, arriving at sunrise. After lying on the beach for several hours, they looked unsuccessfully for people to rob. Marlow berated Cynthia Coffman for their inability to find a victim, held a gun to her head and ordered her to drive. After threatening to shoot her, he began to punch the stab wound on her leg. That night, they slept in the car in front of some houses near the beach. The next day, Coffman cashed a check on Novis’s account, receiving $15. They continued their search for a potential victim and eventually bought dinner at a Taco Bell, where Marlow discarded their identification, along with Novis’s. They drove up into the hills and spent the night.

The next day, they resumed their search for someone to rob. Seeing a woman walking out of Prime Cleaners, Marlow commented that she would be a good one to rob. They continued to drive around, however, and spent the night in the car behind a motel on Pacific Coast Highway after removing the license plates from another car and putting them on Novis’s car. The following afternoon, Cynthia Coffman and Marlow entered Prime Cleaners and committed the robbery, kidnapping, rape and murder of Lynell Murray detailed below (see post, 34 Cal.4th at pp. 32-34, 17 Cal.Rptr.3d at pp. 744-746, 96 P.3d at pp. 59-60).

Cynthia Coffman also presented the testimony of several witnesses suggesting her normally outgoing personality underwent a change and that she behaved submissively and fearfully after she became Marlow’s girlfriend. Judy Scott, Coffman’s friend from Page, Arizona, testified that when Coffman and Marlow visited her in October 1986, Coffman, who previously had been talkative and concerned about the appearance of her hair, avoided eye contact with Scott, spoke tersely and had extremely short hair that she kept covered with a bandana. Lucille Watters testified that during the couple’s July 1986 visit to her house, Cynthia Coffman appeared nervous, rubbing her hands and shaking. Linda Genoe, Lyons’s ex-wife, testified she met Cynthia Coffman in June 1986 when she and Marlow visited her at her home in Kentucky. Genoe observed that whenever Marlow wanted something, he would clap, call “Cynful” and tell her what to do. Cynthia Coffman would always sit at his feet. On one occasion, Genoe saw Cynthia Coffman lying on the floor of the bedroom in which she was staying, naked and crying; Coffman did not respond when Genoe asked what was wrong.

The next morning, Genoe saw scratches on Coffman’s face and bruises around her neck, and Coffman seemed afraid to talk about it. Once Genoe observed Cynthia Coffman cleaning between the spokes on Marlow’s motorcycle with a toothbrush while Marlow watched. While at Genoe’s house, Coffman and Marlow got “married” in a “ biker’s wedding.” Coffman also presented the testimony of Psychologist Lenore Walker, Ph.D., an expert in battered woman syndrome. Dr. Walker opined that Coffman was generally credible and suffered from battered woman syndrome, which she described as a collection of symptoms that is a subcategory of posttraumatic stress disorder. Certain features of defendants’ relationship fit the profile of a battering relationship: a pattern of escalating violence, sexual abuse within the relationship, jealousy, psychological torture, threats to kill, Cynthia Coffman’s awareness of Marlow’s acts of violence toward others, and Marlow’s alcohol and drug abuse.

Dr. Walker administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory to Cynthia Coffman and diagnosed her as having posttraumatic stress disorder and depression with dysthymia, a depressed mood deriving from early childhood. Officer Lisa Baker of the Redlands Police Department testified that on November 15, 1986, she took Cynthia Coffman to the San Bernardino County Medical Center and there observed various scratches and bruises on her arms and legs, a bite mark on her wrist, and a partly healed inch-long cut on her leg. Coffman told Baker the bruises and scratches came from climbing rocks in Big Bear. Gene Kelly, formerly Marlow’s supervisor in his employment with a company that erected microwave towers, testified that one evening in June 1986 he saw Marlow, who believed Cynthia Coffman had been flirting with another man, yank her out of a restaurant door by her hair.

https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/people-v-coffman-no-889481076