A Possible Delay in Coffman Case Seen : Trial: Newly appointed attorneys of a woman already sentenced to death in a San Bernardino murder say they need time to prepare her defense.

SANTA ANA —  The newly appointed lawyers of Cynthia Coffman, already sentenced to death in San Bernardino, say her Orange County trial date in two weeks may be postponed until the end of the year to give them time to prepare her defense.

Coffman, 28, who confessed that she participated with her boyfriend in the 1986 kidnap-murders of two women in Redlands and Huntington Beach, was the first woman sentenced to death in California since capital punishment was reinstated 12 years ago.

Coffman and Gregory Marlow, 34, were sentenced to death in August for the Nov. 5, 1986, murder of 20-year-old insurance clerk Corrine Novis. Orange County prosecutors are seeking a second death sentence against them for the Nov. 12, 1986, murder of 19-year-old Lynell Murray.

Marlow’s attorney in the San Bernardino case, Ray L. Craig of Riverside, is staying on to represent him in Orange County. But Coffman and her lawyers agreed she needed a new defense team. It wasn’t until December that the Orange County public defender’s office was appointed to represent her. And it wasn’t until early January that deputy public defenders Leonard Gumlia and David C. Biggs were assigned to the case. Gumlia said last week that he and Biggs didn’t know enough about the case yet.

“For example, just yesterday I received 19 boxes on this case from San Bernardino,” Gumlia said. “It’s going to be several months before we are even fully knowledgeable about the case.”

Gumlia said it could be the end of 1990 before Coffman goes to trial.

One issue to be decided before then is whether Coffman will be tried separately from Marlow. Both defendants, who have become bitter enemies since their arrest, had asked for separate trials in San Bernardino, but their requests were denied.

Gumlia did not rule out the possibility of trying to plea bargain.

But while Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown stands by his policy of refusing to discuss his cases with the media, so far his office’s position has been that it will not accept anything short of a second death sentence for Coffman.

“We are preparing as if this case is going to go to trial,” Gumlia said. “One of my biggest concerns is that jurors might discover that she already has one death sentence; it might have an effect on them.”