Death Ordered for Murderer of 2
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PLACERVILLE, Calif. — Herbert Coddington, 29, convicted of sexually assaulting two teen-age girls and murdering their elderly chaperones, should be put to death for the crimes, a Superior Court jury decided today. The nine-woman, three-man El Dorado County jury reached the verdict in the penalty phase of the lengthy trial after 3 1/2 hours of deliberations over two days.
Coddington’s defense lawyers said he was caught in the grip of a mental disease when he committed the crimes in May, 1987, but El Dorado County Dist. Atty. Ron Tepper said Coddington was a deliberate killer, who kept voluminous diaries of his acts.
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