Murder Suspect Testifies About Killing of Teen

A woman on trial with her former lover for the slaying of a Redlands woman described in grisly detail Wednesday how the couple murdered 19-year-old Lynel Murray of Huntington Beach, then defiled her body.

The murder occurred Nov. 12, 1986, in the course of a burglary, robbery, rape and kidnaping of Murray from the Huntington Beach dry cleaning store where she worked.

Cynthia Coffman testified in her third day on the witness stand that her former lover, ex-convict James Marlow, “told me, ‘You’re gonna kill this one,’ ” referring to Murray. Coffman said Marlow then gave her instructions on how to do it.

“I put the towel around her neck, like he told me to, and I pulled,” she said. “I couldn’t do it, so he took one side and I took the other.”

When Murray didn’t die, Marlow allegedly told Coffman to get out of his way while he strangled the young woman. She testified that when the murder was over, Marlow urinated on the body.

Coffman described Murray’s killing during the trial in which Coffman and Marlow are accused of murdering Corinna Novis, 20, of Redlands. The couple face the death penalty if convicted. Novis was abducted Nov. 7, 1986, and was later slain.

Coffman’s lawyers are attempting to show that Coffman, too, was a victim of what they call Marlow’s “eroticized hatred of women.”

Coffman has testified that the couple killed three people in the 6 months the couple spent together in 1986.

They are on trial solely for the kidnap-murder of Novis, a Redlands insurance clerk who vanished outside Redlands Mall.

One of those the couple allegedly killed was Murray in Huntington Beach.

Police found Murray’s bound, blindfolded and clothed body in a half-filled Huntington Beach motel bathtub the day after she disappeared. Investigators also discovered that Marlow and Coffman used Murray’s automatic bank teller card to withdraw money from a Corona del Mar bank less than 4 hours after Murray was abducted.

When Marlow and Coffman were arrested, they were wearing clothes they had purchased with Murray’s credit card, police said.

A week after Novis’ disappearance, Coffman led police to a Fontana vineyard where Novis’ strangled body was discovered.

Coffman said she has been subjected to about 50 beatings. She testified that she was sodomized and tattooed against her will.

The murdered women both were robbed and sexually molested by Marlow, Coffman told the jury.

If Coffman was so appalled by Murray’s death, Deputy Dist. Atty. Raymond Haight asked, how could she enjoy dinner and wine with Marlow that same night at an Ontario restaurant?

She was hungry, Coffman replied.

A waitress has testified that Marlow and Coffman were hugging and kissing, Haight reminded her.