David Coffin Murder: The Case Against Scott Davis

The David Coffin murder was solved nearly a decade after the crime, when a Fulton County cold case unit reopened the file and secured a 2005 indictment against Scott Winfield Davis, the estranged husband of Coffin’s girlfriend. Davis was convicted of malice murder in December 2006 and sentenced to life in prison, a conviction Georgia and federal appellate courts have since upheld.

What Happened on December 10, 1996

David L. Coffin Jr. was a 41-year-old heir to a Connecticut industrial fortune who lived in a $300,000 home in Buckhead, Atlanta. On the morning of December 10, 1996, the DeKalb County Fire Department responded to a 911 call about Coffin’s Porsche burning on a road near his home.¹ Later that day a neighbor reported flames coming from Coffin’s house. Firefighters found his charred body inside.

The fire was set to conceal the killing. Coffin’s body was so badly burned that investigators could not initially determine a cause of death, but an autopsy revealed a gunshot wound to the head.² He was found on his back in the kitchen, which investigators considered significant because fire victims are typically found face down while trying to crawl to safety.³

Four days earlier, someone had broken into Coffin’s home and taken computer equipment, watches, the 1988 Porsche, and a 9mm handgun. That stolen handgun matched the caliber of the weapon later found near Coffin’s body.³

Why Scott Davis Became the Suspect

In the fall of 1996, Coffin had begun dating Megan Lee, who was in the process of divorcing Scott Winfield Davis. Coffin’s best friend later told investigators that Coffin was “falling in love with Megan.”⁴

Davis did not want the divorce. He threatened to “kill anyone who had a sexual relationship with his wife” and warned Megan, “Don’t cross this line.”² In letters he wrote, “If things with other men are getting sexual for you, I will never be able to forgive that.” In December 1996 he called Megan’s apartment as many as 30 times in a single Saturday night.⁴

On the morning Coffin’s body was found, Davis himself called 911 three times to report a masked intruder who had sprayed him with Mace, put a gun to his head, and told him to “leave Megan alone.” He said the intruder came back and shot at him, and that he had returned fire with a shotgun. Officers found five shotgun shells at Davis’s property but no shell casings from any other weapon, no bullet-impact sites, and no injuries on Davis.³

The pivotal moment came during a police interview. Davis volunteered that he knew Coffin had been shot. Investigators had not released that information because the body was so badly burned. Davis claimed Megan had told him. Megan denied it and later testified that Davis was actually the one who told her, saying, “The police are here with me. And they said they had just come from a scene in Buckhead where a guy had been shot in the head and his house had been burned down.”⁴

The Evidence Tying Davis to the Crime

Davis had hired a private detective to follow Megan. On December 6, 1996, the investigator provided him with Coffin’s home address, and Davis said he planned to drive by the house.¹ A phone call was placed from Coffin’s home to Davis’s home on December 7 while Coffin was away, suggesting Davis had been inside.²

On December 9, Davis swapped cars with his neighbor, Greg Gatley, specifically requesting Gatley’s white Jeep Cherokee, the same make and color as a vehicle Coffin owned. A hat tassel was recovered from the borrowed Jeep. After the murder, Davis asked Gatley to “get their stories straight” and to tell police he had seen Davis at a gym on the night of December 9. Gatley refused and said he would “just tell the truth.”¹

Davis was arrested on December 13, 1996, and charged with murder, arson, car theft, and burglary.⁵ He spent 90 days in jail before posting a $500,000 bond.⁴

Why the Case Stalled

In June 1998, the Fulton County District Attorney dropped the charges rather than seek an indictment. Prosecutors said there was not enough physical evidence: the recovered handgun was too badly burned for fingerprint analysis, and no DNA or fiber evidence connected Davis to the scene.⁴ Davis left Georgia and moved to Palo Alto, California, where he worked as a software consultant.⁵

How the Cold Case Was Revived

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard established a cold case task force, and in 2004 Assistant District Attorney Sheila Ross was assigned the Coffin file. Her team reinterviewed witnesses, starting with Megan Lee, and recovered letters and voicemail recordings Davis had left for Megan that documented his obsession.³ Ross said she found the original handling of the case “disgusting” because she believed Davis had gotten away with murder.⁴

On November 23, 2005, a Fulton County grand jury returned an indictment. Davis was arrested in Palo Alto and held without bail at the Santa Clara County Jail pending extradition. He was eventually released on $1 million bond.⁵

The Trial and Conviction

The trial ran nearly six weeks in Fulton County Superior Court, with more than 60 witnesses. Ross built a largely circumstantial case, framing Davis as a “competitive man” who could not accept losing his wife and had “hunted his competition.”⁴

Megan Lee was the central witness. She had remarried and moved to Australia, but flew back and testified over three days about Davis’s obsessive behavior and, most damaging, his knowledge that Coffin had been shot before that fact was public. Ross later said the case “would have been very difficult without her.”⁴

The defense, led by Bruce Morris, focused on the absence of physical evidence and on the state’s loss of more than 40 items of original evidence, including the suspected murder weapon, shell casings, gas cans, and latent fingerprint cards from Coffin’s Porsche. The defense argued the missing items could have been exculpatory and moved to dismiss the indictment. The trial court denied the motion, finding Davis had not shown the state acted in bad faith.² Davis’s father, Dr. Dave Davis, an Atlanta forensic psychiatrist, testified in an effort to provide an alibi.⁴

On December 4, 2006, after four days of deliberation, the jury found Davis guilty of malice murder and two counts of felony murder. The court entered judgment on the malice murder count and sentenced him to life in prison; the felony murder verdicts were vacated by operation of law.² At sentencing, Davis told the court, “I’ve maintained my innocence throughout this and I still maintain my innocence.”⁴

Appeals and Current Status

The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Davis’s conviction on April 28, 2009, rejecting challenges to evidentiary rulings, jury instructions, and prosecution closing arguments.² The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case later that year. His state habeas petition, including ineffective-assistance claims, was denied, and the Georgia Supreme Court denied a certificate of probable cause to appeal in March 2013.¹

Davis then filed a federal habeas petition in the Northern District of Georgia, again arguing that the state’s loss of physical evidence violated due process. The district court denied relief. On October 10, 2019, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed, finding no evidence that officers “knew or should have known that the lost or destroyed evidence was exculpatory” and no indication of official bad faith.⁶

Davis’s family separately mounted a public campaign. In April 2010 they erected a billboard near Atlanta City Hall reading, “Scott Davis is an innocent man. Got evidence?” and offering a $350,000 reward. His attorney Marcia Shein challenged the ballistics testimony at trial, alleging a GBI scientist had testified to a bullet match despite inconsistencies. The GBI confirmed that the scientist had been fired after a review found she had misrepresented findings in an investigation, though the agency said it had not discovered fabrication in other cases.⁷

Davis is serving his life sentence in a Georgia state prison. Reporting from 2007 indicated he would be eligible for parole in 2020,⁴ but no available records show a parole hearing or a release. His last known proceeding was the Eleventh Circuit’s October 2019 decision.⁶

1
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Davis v. Sellers, No. 17-14325
2
Findlaw. Davis v. State, No. S09A0395
3
Oxygen. Scott Davis Killed David Coffin
4
CBS News. The Ghost of David Coffin
5
SFGate. Palo Alto Man Rearrested in Multimillionaires Killing
6
Justia. Davis v. Sellers, No. 17-14325
7
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Downtown Billboard Seeks Evidence in High-Profile Murder