SCORE ANOTHER BIG WIN FOR THE DA’s COLD CASE SQUAD
Almost 10 Years to the Day, Scott Davis Convicted of Grisly 1996 Arson-Murder

            The odds were stacked against the Fulton County District Attorney’s team of veteran prosecutors and investigators from the beginning.  Much of the physical evidence of the December 1996 murder of Buckhead resident David Coffin, Jr. had been destroyed in the fire set by the killer.  Additionally, as the case was being prepared for trial, it was discovered 44 pieces of evidence were missing.  Nevertheless, with justice for the Coffin family foremost in their minds, Assistant District Attorneys Sheila Ross, head of the Fulton County Multi-Agency Cold Case Squad and Pete Johnson and Kellie Hill of the DA’s Public Integrity Unit began empanelling a jury on October 23, 2006.  On December 4, 2006, the jury found Davis guilty on all counts of malice murder and felony murder.

            District Attorney Paul Howard says without much of the physical evidence, the strategy was to connect the disparate pieces that remained through a careful re-telling of the events that preceded and followed the murder.  Sometime on December 9th and 10th of 1996, the jury concluded that Davis accosted David Coffin—an heir to a Connecticut chemical company fortune—shot him in the head, doused with him and his home with gasoline and set them on fire.  Several days earlier, the evidence showed Davis had broken into Coffin’s home and stolen Coffin’s Porsche convertible and a 9mm Beretta, which he used to commit the murder.  The motive:  Davis was enraged that Coffin was dating his estranged wife.

            One of the strongest prosecution witnesses was the former wife of the defendant, Megan Bruton.  Ms. Bruton was living separately from Davis at the time of the murder.  Her testimony affirmed the State’s motive.   The private investigator Davis hired to locate Coffin’s address had also tape recorded phone conversations in which Davis lied about being the victim of a burglary and arson. The State convinced the jury that Davis had not only burgled and set fire to David Coffin’s home, but had set fire to his own home in a bizarre attempt to make it appear he was a victim and not a suspect in Coffin’s murder.   

            The case of the State v. Scott Winfield Davis will be chronicled by the CBS network’s 48 Hours Mysteries and Court-TV.  He is currently serving the mandatory sentence of life in prison imposed by Superior Court Judge Tom Campbell.  At a news conference following the trial, David Coffin’s parents and siblings expressed their gratitude to the Fulton District Attorney’s Office and District Attorney Paul Howard for pursuing justice in the case and bringing a measure of peace to their family.