Pall Mall cigarettes

For two years as a teenager, Holly Coomber lived under the fearful command of her foster father, who sexually assaulted her, impregnated her, then forced her to give up her child, according to court papers and social services records.

That relationship — Coomber eventually considered her foster father, William Allen, her lover — took a violent turn in 1986 when the two went on a bloody multistate robbery trek and murdered two convenience store clerks, one in Seneca Falls and another in Georgia.

Allen pulled the trigger in both murders, and Coomber testified against him in both states.

Now, lawyers in New York are pushing for freedom for Coomber. They argue in court papers filed in Seneca County on Friday that Coomber's lawyer in her Seneca County trial in 1986 was ineffective because he did little to no work to unearth the horrid circumstances of her life and the power that Allen wielded over her.

"Holly Coomber was also a victim of William Allen," said Syracuse attorney Randi Juda Bianco, one of a team of attorneys seeking to have Coomber's conviction overturned. "She was his punching bag, she was his sex toy, and she was his foster child."

Coomber's former lawyer, former Seneca County Public Defender Thomas Jones, could not be reached for comment.

Coomber received a 121/2- to 25-year sentence in Georgia, where she is now incarcerated, to be followed by the same sentence in New York.

Allen originally was sentenced to death in Georgia, but that sentence was overturned and he was retried, convicted and sentenced to life. He was also convicted and sentenced to life for the New York murder.

Reached Friday, family members of Donna Guerriri, the Seneca Falls clerk slain in 1986, said they did not want to comment. Alfred Guerriri Jr., who was married to Donna Guerriri, has received the court papers from Coomber's lawyers.

Former Seneca County District Attorney Dennis Bender, who is now a County Court judge, wrote in a 1999 letter in court filings that he had no doubt that Coomber "knew someone was going to be murdered" during the Seneca Falls robbery. "I suggest, notwithstanding her background, the 13 years is not a very high price for her to pay," he wrote of the time Coomber had then served.

Bianco, Rochester lawyer Barbara Farrell, the New York State Defenders Association and Syracuse-based sentencing specialist Richard Luciani have amassed adoption, school, social service and criminal records from New York, Georgia and Missouri that detail the struggles of Coomber's upbringing and the sordid relationship between her and Allen.

Allen "is a master of intimidation," a Missouri social worker who became close to Coomber wrote in February 1986. "In my opinion he calls all the shots and leaves Holly unsure of all except that she knows she needs to please him to remain."

Coomber was then 17 and pregnant with a child she claimed was Allen's. Allen forced her to give up the child and told friends that the child had died, reports show.

A tragic life

Born in Hornell, Steuben County, in 1969, Holly Coomber was placed into adoption when she was 8 months old because her parents were unable to afford children, according to court records. Coomber alleges in an affidavit that her adoptive family was violent toward her, and that her family told others she was "accident prone" as an excuse to cover up her injuries. She also suffered sexual molestation at the hands of an uncle, she alleged.

In 1983, she was sent to the Hillside Children's Center in Rochester, where troubled youths are housed and counseled. She was placed into the foster care system when her adoptive family did not want her to return. In October 1984, after two short foster care placements, she was placed in the home of William Allen and his wife in Lyons, Wayne County.

Shortly after moving in with the Allens, Coomber underwent knee surgery at Genesee Hospital. Allen would visit and talk about wanting to have sex with her, according to her affidavit.

Once she returned to the home, Allen began regularly having sex with her in the woods, telling his wife he was taking her to teach her to hunt, Coomber claimed. At age 16, he had her quit school and declare herself "emancipated," a move that should have alerted state authorities to the control he had, her lawyers argue.

Soon afterward, the two moved together to Missouri, where she became pregnant, she says, with Allen's child. Allen, who divorced his wife, was 46, and Coomber was 16.

"William Allen told me that if I came home with a baby, he would kill it," Coomber said in her affidavit. She gave up the child, and Allen, having claimed to others that the baby died, took her away from Missouri.

"He made her give the child up for adoption," said Glynn County, Ga., Police Capt. Jack Boyet, who interviewed and grew to know Coomber after the Georgia murder. "That's pretty good control. When you can make a mother give up her child, you've got a pretty good hold on that person."

The slayings

The first murder occurred in Brunswick, Ga., in October 1986, when the couple robbed a convenience store and Allen fatally shot the 48-year-old clerk, Emily Moore.

Allen and Coomber then traveled to New York and, during a robbery of a Seneca Falls Kwik-Fill, Allen murdered Guerreri. They stole gas, three cartons of Pall Mall cigarettes and $130.

The two returned to Georgia, where they were arrested and linked to both murders.

While in jail, Allen persuaded Coomber to take blame for the slayings, Boyet said.

"He talked her into saying she did everything," Boyet said. "That went on for about two and a half months."

Eventually, Coomber agreed to testify against Allen in both states.

Under her plea agreement, Coomber did not have to testify against Allen when he was retried after the reversal of his death sentence, Boyet said. But, Coomber wanted to. "She knows what she did was wrong and she was trying to correct it," he said.

Should Coomber be freed, she may well have a family to return to, Bianco said. Her biological family has recently been in touch with her, and says she can move in with them.