Jury Asks for Death in Rape-Murder Case

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 Wednesday.

The El Dorado County jurors reached the verdict in the penalty phase of the lengthy trial after 3 1/2 hours of deliberations over two days.

Coddington was convicted Aug. 11 of strangling Reno modeling agency owner Maybelle Martin, 69, and Dorothy Walsh, 73, at his South Lake Tahoe mobile home. He was also convicted of imprisoning two teen-age girls in a specially built chamber in his bedroom and sexually assaulting them over a two-day period.