Jill Coit Bigamist, Murderer, Sociopath--Married 11 Times, A&E Documentary on Notorious

Jill Coit might have spent years manipulating others, but she failed Friday to sway 12 people from putting her behind bars for life. A Grand County District Court jury found Coit, 51, guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for the Oct. 21, 1993, slaying of Steamboat Springs hardware store owner Gerald Boggs, her eighth husband.

Jurors, after five hours of deliberations, also found co-defendant Michael Backus of Greeley guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy for helping kill Boggs before the start of trial in his lawsuit alleging fraud and bigamy by Coit.

Authorities never found a handgun used to shoot Boggs, who also was hit with a stun gun inside his home. Instead, prosecutors relied on other evidence, including statements by Jill Coit's son, Seth, that she had plotted Boggs' death for months. Seth Coit, who was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony, testified his mother called him the afternoon of the murder and said, ''Hey Baby, it's over and it's messy.''

Jill Coit, who has been married 11 times to nine men, proclaimed her innocence. In a rambling statement before the verdict, the woman dubbed the ''Black Widow'' by private investigators again claimed she hadn't received a fair trial because she knew the presiding judge.

Judge Richard Doucette, who said earlier that he'd never met Coit before the start of her six-week trial, set her sentencing for May 1 in Steamboat Springs. She faces life imprisonment. ''We won't ever have Gerry back, but we got justice,'' said Harold Boggs, the victim's father.

Backus, 49, who was Coit's boyfriend, will be sentenced May 23.

Backus' attorney, Leonard Davies, laid the groundwork throughout the trial for an appeal because he argued his client deserved a separate trial. ''She manipulated him (Backus) like she did all 10 or 11 other men,'' said Boggs' brother, Doug.

Gerald Boggs married Jill Coit in April 1991, but the marriage was annulled in December 1991 because she was still married to her seventh husband.

But by that time, Doug Boggs and his wife, Jan, already had come to fear Jill Coit. Breaking nearly two years of silence about the case, Doug Boggs said Friday that his brother pressed a civil lawsuit against Coit because he wanted to expose her history of bigamous marriages and false claims of pregnancy.

Doug Boggs said his brother was devastated when Coit falsely claimed to be pregnant and vowed to prevent her from using the ploy against someone else.

''My brother gave his life so that this would never happen to another family,'' he said. ''Jill Coit picked the wrong town, the wrong man and the wrong family. Gerry knew the only way it could be stopped was by giving his life.''

Gerald Boggs spent more than $ 100,000 preparing for his civil suit against Coit, said Doug Boggs, who attended the trial despite recent back surgery. "'She ruined Gerry, and he was never the same,'' Jan Boggs said.

The Boggs family worried about Coit after she purportedly threatened to ''get'' them during a 1992 deposition for the civil case. From the day of his brother's death until Coit's arrest in November 1993, Doug Boggs said his entire family was on edge.

''We'd never locked our house. We were never gun people,'' he said. ''We locked our house after that. We got guns. We had people stay with us . . . My parents and my family lived in fear.''

Coit's attorney, Joseph Saint-Veltri, left the courtroom in Hot Sulphur Springs - where the case was moved because of pretrial publicity - without comment.

Davies argued in closing statements that 27 witnesses in the case presented testimony against Coit, but not against Backus. Backus, Davies said, ''was in a romantic relationship with a person who fooled a lot of people.''

By Kevin McCullen; Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer, March 18, 1995

Also see the A&E TV special Notorious, Serial Wife:

"The death of 52-year-old Gerald Boggs appeared to be a "normal" murder case, if there is such a thing. But as the evidence was unearthed and the suspects investigated, police and prosecutors in Steamboat Springs, Colorado realized they were dealing with an unusual killer indeed.

AMERICAN JUSTICE® reveals that Boggs' former wife, to whom he was married for just a week, quickly became the prime suspect. Jill Coit had been married ten times, sometimes committing bigamy (she was already married when she wed Boggs) and several of her former husbands had died under mysterious circumstances. SERIAL WIFE traces every step of the investigation, trial and appeal, speaking with attorneys for both sides and the reporters who covered the case to tell the definitive story of "Colorado's Black Widow."

Also see the Wiliam Coit, Jr. story

Timeline:

December 23, 1993: Jill Coit is accused of murder.

April 15, 1994: Lawyers for Jill Coit try to get the trial moved.

May 26, 1994: Judge allows for change of venue

June 22, 1994: judge denies motions to hold separate trials for Jill and Michael Backus.

February 6, 1995: Jury selection begins in the trial

February 18, 1995: Jury hears a tape where Jill and her 8th husband quarreled over whether she actually had given birth to his child.

February 25, 1995: Jill's son, Seth Coit, testified against his mother. He stated that she had been making plans to kill Gerry Boggs

February 28, 1995: Seth Coit testified that hid his mom's hat in the wake of the steamboat slayings, and that he had lied in a deposition taken for a lawsuit Boggs filed against his mother.

March 1, 1995: The defense attorney's try to pursuede the jury that Seth Coit had more of a reason to kill Gerry Boggs than did Jill.

March 2, 1995: Seth testifies that he still fears his mother.

March 11, 1995: A surprise witness comes forth to say that he had seen Gerry Boggs after his supposed death.

March 14, 1995: The defense rests.

March 18, 1995: Jill Coit is found guilty

May 24, 1995: Jill Coit is sentenced to life in prison and fined one million dollars in order that she may not profit from selling her life story.

November 29, 1997: Jill Coit loses appeal.

January 9, 1998: Jill Coit loses appeal.

March 22, 1998: Jill places an ad on the internet which states: "Want U.S. Citizenship? Marry and inmate" The Department of Immigration shuts it down

Comments

[eve rider]

while i was incarcerated at DWCF, i was Jill's aid and wheelchair chauffeur, and i had an opportunity to get acquainted with her. She worked hard to help other inmates file appeals and grievences agianst DOC and i think she she's a decent human being and i enjoyed her company. People make mistakes and she deserves to be forgiven

[Jill]

I spent five months in the Routt County Jail with Jill - the most traumatic event in my life. Eyes as black as coal - you could tell she was always plotting something. She would sit and write letters to Michael every single day, would never speak to you, and we were all in the same open cell block - this was in 1993. I knew she had done it. Having been a criminal paralegal, you get this gut instinct, and she was one of the worst people I had ever met. She really deserved the death penalty. A true sociopath in the real sense of the word, but I really believed she was a psycopath. There was no doubt in my mind that if would cross her, you were a goner.

[Gina]

I spent time with Jill in the county jail in Steamboat. I braided her hair the day she was sentenced to life. She really believes her own stories. I requested they lock her down after her sentence as I felt she had nothing to loose at that point. She like to take the TV guide and mark off the shows she wanted to watch, usually the shows about murder and crime. (life time originals)Definitely creepy.
Amazing she was able to continue her path of destruction for so long. What a shame for the Boggs' family and her own children.

[mistresskelly2@yahoo.com]

I spent time with Jill Coit in CWCF. She was my roomie for awhile. She is quite the character.