Huntington Beach : New Murder Charges Filed Against Couple

A transient couple awaiting trial in last November’s kidnap-murders of two Southern California women were charged Tuesday with a third murder in Kentucky.

James Gregory Marlow, 31, and Cynthia Lynn Coffman, 25, were indicted on capital murder charges by a grand jury in Whitley County, Ky., state prosecutor Paul Braden said.

Marlow, formerly from the eastern Kentucky town of Whitley City, stands accused in the shooting death of Gregory Hill, 28, on or about July 7, 1986, and Coffman is charged with aiding him in the murder, Braden said.

The two remain in custody in San Bernardino County Jail.

According to the indictment, the couple were hired to murder Hill by two other Kentucky men, who were indicted along with Marlow and Coffman. The state will seek the death penalty as allowed by Kentucky law in cases of murder-for-hire, Braden said.

Marlow and Coffman could face the death penalty in California if convicted in the kidnap-murder cases of Corinna D. Novis, 20, of Redlands and Lynel Murray, 19, of Huntington Beach. Novis was abducted on Nov. 7 and Murray was abducted on Nov. 12. Both were later found murdered.

The Novis case trial will begin in San Bernardino County in early January, with the Orange County trial into the death of Lynel Murray to be held after that, possibly in late 1988, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Toohey said.

Braden said Kentucky will request extradition of Marlow and Coffman but doesn’t foresee the two being tried there until the California trials are complete.

Toohey agreed and thought it unlikely they would come to trial in Kentucky at all.

“It’s my hope that they’ll be on Death Row and it’ll be unnecessary to transport them to Kentucky,” Toohey said.