Coffman ‘Instigated’ Killing, Prosecutor Says : Trial: Deputy district attorney disputes defense contentions that she acted out of fear, saying in closing arguments that she played a major role in the crime.

Cynthia Lynn Coffman played a major role in the kidnap-murder of a Huntington Beach woman, contrary to defense arguments that the defendant acted out of fear of an abusive lover, a prosecutor said Monday.

In his closing arguments, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert C. Gannon Jr. told the Superior Court jury that it was Coffman, now 30, who had “instigated” the death of Lynel Murray, 19, and not Coffman’s then-boyfriend, James Gregory Marlow, now 36.

Murray was abducted from the dry cleaners where she worked and was strangled in a Huntington Beach motel on Nov. 12, 1986. The case is expected to go to jurors today.

Marlow has already received a death sentence for his role in the Murray killing. In addition, he and Coffman have received death sentences for the kidnaping and strangulation of Corinna D. Novis, 20, in Redlands on Nov. 7, 1986, five days before the attack on Murray.

Coffman’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia, conceded to the jury that Coffman had confessed to police that she took part in the killings, essentially admitting that she committed first-degree murder. However, he said, “she never formed the intent to kill.”

Coffman’s intent is “the heart of the case,” Gumlia said, because it will determine if several special circumstances apply. Should the jury find that there were indeed any special circumstances, Coffman could receive a second death sentence.

Gumlia reiterated to the jury that Marlow, not Coffman, prompted the couple’s crime rampage in 1986. He said Marlow was a sexually abusive lover who terrorized and demeaned Coffman frequently.

“To Marlow, Cyndy was a possession,” Gumlia said. He “offered her” to other men, saying: “ ‘What’s mine is yours,’ ” the defense attorney said.

“Marlow had many hooks in Coffman,” Gumlia said. Marlow had promised Coffman that the two of them and Coffman’s young son, Josh, would someday live together as a family, Gumlia said.

Gannon, however, described those arguments as self-serving. There is “more than ample evidence” to show that Coffman intended to kill Murray, he said.

“Was duress at play here? No,” he said.

Gannon told the jury the law is very clear--that you cannot kill someone and then justify that action by saying someone threatened you. Coffman testified that after they had kidnaped Murray, Marlow did not threaten her.

Gannon portrayed Coffman not as a scared woman locked in a tormented, no-win relationship but rather as a murderess hunting for the next victim.

“She testified that she had no idea Marlow was going to kidnap Murray . . . yet she helped put the tape on Murray’s face,” Gannon said.

Gannon told jurors that Marlow raped and beat Murray, and that afterward, Coffman grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Murray’s neck. Then, Gannon said, as Marlow held one end and Coffman the other, the two of them tugged until Murray was strangled.

There seem to be two Cynthia Coffmans, Gannon contended--the Coffman who committed the murders and the Coffman who testified.

“You heard the defendant on the witness stand,” Gannon said. “Is this the same demure, ostensibly subservient and downcast person we are told was with Marlow?”

“The intent,” argued Gannon “was that the previous murder (of Novis) was part of a plan, part of the whole crime spree.”