Coker Denied New Trial in Janet Phinney Murder Case

The West Roxbury man convicted in the 1988 murder of 20-year-old Janet Phinney will not get a new trial in the once unsolved case, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said Friday.

The state’s Appeals Court denied a motion for a new trial for Michael Coker, who was convicted in 2013 of second-degree murder in the strangulation death of his one-time girlfriend decades earlier, according to a recent press release.

In his failed appeal, Coker claims that the Superior Court judge who presided at his trial erred in admitting evidence of bruising Phinney suffered during her dating relationship with the defendant and statements she had made to others about her efforts to escape from him.

The court found no error in allowing testimony from multiple witnesses that Phinney had made statements in the final months and weeks of her life that she no longer wanted Coker in her life.

Coker was accused of strangling Phinney, his ex-girlfriend, to death in March 1988. Family members last saw the 20-year-old at her Cedar Road home on March 18, 1988, according to the DA’s office. A neighbor discovered her remains on March 21, 1988 in a wooded area behind her home.

In May 2013 Coker was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

During the trial, witnesses stated that they had seen a man resembling Coker pacing in the area, “asking to use the phone at a local business, and arguing with Phinney shortly before she was last seen,” according to Conley’s office. Testimony showed Coker left several angry messages on the family’s answering machine around the same time.

Photo: Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office