2 Prime Suspects Plead Not Guilty in Novis Slaying

James Gregory Marlow and Cynthia Lynn Coffman, prime suspects in the abductions and killings of two young women in Southern California, pleaded not guilty in Redlands Municipal Court Tuesday to five charges relating to the disappearance and death of Corinna D. Novis of Redlands.

San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Dennis E. Kottmeier said he would seek the death penalty for Marlow, 30, and Coffman, 24. They have been charged with murder, kidnaping, kidnaping for robbery, robbery and burglary in connection with the Nov. 7 abduction and killing of Miss Novis, 20, whose body was discovered last week in a shallow grave in Fontana.

Marlow and Coffman also are the prime suspects in the death of Lynel Murray, a 19-year-old Huntington Beach college student who was abducted the evening of Nov. 12 from a dry-cleaning establishment where she worked. Miss Murray, who was strangled, was found less than 24 hours later in a room at a beachfront motel in Huntington Beach.

Marlow Sister Arraigned

In addition to Marlow and Coffman, Redlands Municipal Judge John Arden arraigned Marlow’s sister, Veronica Kay Koppers, 27, and Richard Henry Drinkhouse, 28, Tuesday on charges relating to Miss Novis’ abduction. Koppers was charged with false imprisonment and receiving stolen property, while Drinkhouse was charged with kidnaping for robbery and kidnaping. Bail was set at $100,000 for Koppers and $200,000 for Drinkhouse. Both pleaded not guilty.

Marlow and Coffman were being held without bail in the San Bernardino County Jail, along with the two accused accomplices. Arden set a Dec. 2 date for a preliminary hearing in the case.

In Orange County, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James Enright, whose department conferred Monday night with Huntington Beach police detectives, said Tuesday that he expected to charge Marlow and Coffman in connection with Miss Murray’s death. But he said there was no hurry to begin proceedings.

“We don’t want to do anything that would interrupt their case in San Bernardino County, and we don’t have any police reports yet,” Enright said. “We will have them soon.”

He also said Huntington Beach police are continuing “a rather extensive investigation” into Miss Murray’s slaying. A police spokeswoman said Tuesday that officers are trying to determine when and where Marlow and Coffman were in Orange County.

Costa Mesa police, meanwhile, have contacted Redlands, Huntington Beach and Riverside detectives to see if Marlow and Coffman might be connected to the strangulation killing of Sandra Ann Neary, 32, of Costa Mesa. Her decomposed body was discovered Oct. 24 in Riverside County.

“So far, we have not been able to link (Marlow and Coffman) to her death,” Costa Mesa Police Capt. Robert Moody said.

Mrs. Neary left her home about 6 p.m. Oct. 11 for what was to be a quick trip to the store for groceries and to her bank for cash and never returned, Moody said. Two days later, he said, Stephen Neary reported his wife missing. A body was found alongside a Riverside County road, and positive identification was made through fingerprint comparison on Halloween, Moody said.

Mrs. Neary’s car, found in a Costa Mesa parking lot, will be checked for fingerprints matching those of Marlow and Coffman, Moody said.

Investigators with the Orange County district attorney’s office have not yet discussed the Neary case with detectives from Costa Mesa, Enright said.

Police detectives in Bullhead City, Ariz., about 25 miles from the California border, said Tuesday that they, too, had talked with Redlands police about their investigation into the apparent abduction of Pamela Joyce Simmonds, 35, who disappeared Oct. 28. Simmonds was an advertising saleswoman at radio station KBAS in Bullhead City.

However, Bullhead City Police Lt. Richard White said Tuesday that investigators there have found “no link” between Simmonds’ disappearance and Marlow and Coffman.

“There were some similarities in the Redlands case--the fact that there was a woman abducted and (Bullhead City) is in the California area,” White said, “but so far that is it for connections.”

With ‘Scraggly’ Man

White said Simmonds, a Bullhead City resident, left the radio station where she worked about 6 p.m. Oct. 28 and was last seen 15 minutes later at a market a few miles away. White said Simmonds was seen at the store with a man who was described on flyers circulated in the area as “scraggly.”

Simmonds’ beige 1978 Thunderbird was found parked on “the opposite side of the Police Department complex,” White said, but no one reported seeing the woman near her car. There was nothing missing from her car, and no money has been withdrawn from her bank accounts since her disappearance, White said.

The man last seen with Simmonds was a Caucasian in his late 20s, possibly six feet tall and with a thin build, White said. He said witnesses described the man as “very dirty, scraggly, with shoulder-length hair and a beard.”

White said the man also “may have a tattoo in the web of one hand, between the thumb and index finger, either an A with a plus sign or an X.”

Marlow has tattoos on his back, chest and arms, including a swastika on his upper arm, according to Redlands Police Capt. Lewis Nelson, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

No Tattoos on Hands

However, Jim Bryant, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, said Marlow had no tattoos on his hands when he was arrested and booked into jail by his department on April 5 for driving a car his former wife, Kathleen Marlow, had reported stolen.

Bryant said she refused to sign a complaint to have her former husband prosecuted because she was afraid of him.

Redlands Police Chief Robert E. Brickley has said Marlow is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacy group he supposedly joined in state prison in 1980.

Brickley said Tuesday that since Marlow and Coffman were arrested in the Big Bear area last Friday, his office has received “inquiries, a great many, from other police agencies. They are coming from all over the nation.”

Redlands investigators have said that Marlow and Coffman told them that they had planned to go to Phoenix, where they had targeted a pregnant woman as their next victim.

Marlow and Coffman and their alleged accomplices in the Novis case were arraigned late Tuesday. First, Marlow, dressed in a red jail jump suit, and Coffman, in a blue jump suit, were taken in handcuffs from the Redlands City Jail across an alley to the back door of the courthouse.

Kept Heads Bowed

Throughout the court appearance, they kept their heads bowed and looked up only when addressed by Arden. Two detectives flanked them throughout the proceeding, which was attended by about 20 members of the news media and a similar number of plainclothes police officers.

Koppers and Drinkhouse were led into the courtroom after Marlow and Coffman had made their appearance.

Earlier in the day, Arden appointed four private attorneys to represent the four defendants.

Marlow is being represented by Ray Craig, who said he has defended murder suspects for almost 20 years. The attorney said Arden had called him Tuesday morning and that he had spoken to Marlow only “very perfunctorily with a policeman on his shoulders.”

Coffman’s attorney, Luis R. Palacios, also said he had had very little time with his client.

“I did not even begin to discuss the essence of the case with her,” Palacios said.

Bruce M. Leyden was appointed to represent Koppers, and John F. Hardy will represent Drinkhouse.

Backup Prosecutor

San Bernardino Deputy Dist. Atty. Raymond Haight will prosecute the case, although Kottmeier said he would be the “backup prosecutor” if needed, explaining that the county had “a limited number of prosecutors with death-penalty experience.”

Haight said he had talked with the Orange County district attorney’s office but declined to discuss the case with reporters after Tuesday’s arraignment.

Although Kottmeier would not discuss the particulars of the case, he did say the death penalty would be sought for Marlow and Coffman because Miss Novis was murdered while the two suspects were engaged in kidnaping, robbery and burglary.

Drinkhouse’s wife, Marcia Drinkhouse, said Tuesday that she did not know anything about the charges against her husband and that authorities had refused to talk to her.

“I don’t know nothing; they won’t tell me anything either,” she said.

Barbara Downs, 23, the Drinkhouses’ former next-door neighbor in Colton, said she learned of his troubles when she appeared at the courthouse Tuesday for jury duty.

She said Drinkhouse had suffered a lot of “mood swings” since he was involved in a motorcycle accident. Downs said she doesn’t think she ever saw Marlow or Coffman at the Drinkhouse apartment.

“Her face looks real familiar, but I don’t ever remember seeing them there,” she said.