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Raffi
KODIKIAN
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Mercy
killing after they became lost without water while camping in the
desert
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder:
August 8, 1999
Date of arrest:
Next day
Date of birth: 1974
Victim profile:
David Coughlin, 26 (his best friend)
Method of murder: Stabbing
with knife
Location: Rattlesnake
Canyon,
New Mexico, USA
Status:
Sentenced to fifteen-years in prison, and suspended thirteen-years
of the sentence as probation. Served 16 months. He was released in
November 2001
David Coughlin was killed in 1999 in the
desert of southern New Mexico, in the United States, after he and
Raffi Kodikian got lost while hiking. Kodikian later pleaded guilty to
second-degree murder and served 16 months. He was released in November
2001.
Rattlesnake Canyon
Kodikian and Coughlin, best friends since college,
were in their twenties and lived in Boston, Massachusetts. Kodikian
was an aspiring journalist and Coughlin was a traffic policy analyst.
In July 1999, the two set off on a road trip from
Boston to California, where Coughlin planned to attend graduate school.
On August 4, they arrived at Rattlesnake Canyon in Carlsbad Caverns
National Park and made camp.
After days of hiking, the two became lost and
dehydrated. Kodikian and Coughlin had only brought three pints of
water and one pint of Gatorade. One pint of water was used to boil hot
dogs during their first evening in the canyon. Although they had a
topographical map, neither knew how to properly read it. The two took
extreme measures, including licking rocks, eating cactus fruit, even
drinking their own urine. Kodikian abandoned the idea of drinking his
own urine after gagging.
The third night, Coughlin began vomiting, according
to Kodikian. On August 8, Kodikian wrote in his journal:
"I killed & burried (sic) my best friend today.
Dave had been in pain all night. At around 5 or 6, he turned to me and
begged that I put my knife through his chest. I did, and a second time
when he wouldn't die."
Lance Mattson, a park ranger who had been searching
for the campers, discovered Kodikian badly dehydrated. When the ranger
inquired about Coughlin, Kodikian pointed to a pile of rocks and
replied, "I killed him."
Investigation and trial
Kodikian's attorney, Gary Mitchell, described the
killing as an act of kindness. He further stated that it was part of a
death pact between the friends and Kodikian intended to kill himself
too, but was too weak to do so. Eddy County sheriff, Michael A. Click
stated that Kodikian was "moderately to severely dehydrated," and
wasn't close to dying when Mattson found him. Authorities further
noted that Kodikian had buried Coughlin's body under rocks, some
weighing more than 70 pounds. The weight of the rocks and the
completion of the task seemed remarkable for someone seriously
dehydrated. The autopsy on Coughlin revealed that while he was
dehydrated, it didn't appear to be fatal.
While one theory was that Coughlin confessed to
having earlier had a liaison with an ex-girlfriend of Kodikian,
Sheriff Click sent Capt. Eddie Carrasco to Boston, but Carrasco
discovered nothing.
"No one I talked with ever heard a cross word
between them. They were the best of friends".
At his trial, Kodikian pleaded guilty to second-degree
murder. During the sentencing part of Kodikian's trial, it became
clear that Coughlin's vomiting was not indicative of severe
dehydration but instead was most likely a reaction to unripe cactus
fruit.
While Kodikian faced a possible maximum penalty of
20 years in prison, he was instead sentenced by District Judge Jay
Forbes to 15 years with all but two years suspended, followed by five
years of probation.
Further reading
Kersten, Jason. Journal of the Dead : A Story of
Friendship and Murder in the New Mexico Desert
Hiker gets 2 years for stabbing
By Michelle Koidin - Amarillo.com
May 11, 2000
CARLSBAD, N.M. - A 26-year-old hiker who stabbed
his best friend to death in what he called a mercy killing after they
became lost without water while camping in the desert was sentenced
Wednesday to two years in prison.
Saying Raffi Kodikian poses no danger to society
and that he is remorseful, state District Judge Jay Forbes sentenced
him to 15 years but suspended all but a two-year prison term, to be
followed by five years of probation. The maximum penalty was 20 years.
Kodikian pleaded no contest to second-degree murder
Monday in the stabbing of David Coughlin, 26, of Millis, Mass. The
killing occurred on their fourth day in the backcountry of Carlsbad
Caverns National Park last August.
Kodikian, who listened intently as the judge
announced his decision, told reporters after the hearing that he still
believes he did the right thing.
"I feel that anybody in my position who would turn
their back on their friend wouldn't have been deserving of coming out
of the canyon in the first place," he said.
His lawyer, Gary Mitchell, who asked the judge for
no prison time, said the sentence is "extremely fair," and he has not
decided whether to appeal. Under the plea bargain, Kodikian retains
the right to appeal the judge's ruling barring the defense from
arguing before a jury that Kodikian suffered from "involuntary
intoxication" brought on by dehydration at the time of the killing.
Forbes said Kodikian deserved to be punished but
that a long sentence, as requested by the prosecution, was not
necessary.
"He had a conscious and rational understanding of
what he did at the time he murdered David Coughlin," Forbes said. "(But)
Raffi's remorse is genuine; I don't question that."
Coughlin's relatives were not present but faxed a
statement to prosecutor Les Williams, who read it in court.
"We can think of no reason why Raffi would have
wished David any harm or pain," the statement said. "Moreover, we
cannot presume to know what transpired, or the thoughts and emotions
the two experienced during the days before David's death. To be sure,
we have questions. However, we find it difficult to believe there was
any malicious intent."
In his closing argument, Williams cited testimony
from experts in dehydration, who said both men were dehydrated enough
to be in pain, but Coughlin would have survived had he not been
stabbed.
"Where there is life, there is hope. The defendant
purposely took David Coughlin's life. ... David Coughlin would be
alive today if Raffi Kodikian had not killed him," Williams said. "The
law says you may not murder another person just because you think it's
in their best interest."
Williams also cited Kodikian's testimony that he
and Coughlin considered suicide, but the knife was too dull to cut
Kodikian's wrist. Holding up the folding knife used to kill Coughlin,
Williams said it was sharp enough, and the fact that Kodikian did not
kill himself meant he had hope to survive.
"This defendant is not an evil person," Williams
said. "He is not a bad person. But he did do a bad thing."
Defense attorney Mitchell, meanwhile, compared
Kodikian's situation to soldiers in combat who know one of their
friends isn't going to make it. He said Coughlin and Kodikian were
"placed in an absolutely horrible situation of total hopelessness."
During the hearing, which began Monday, Kodikian
recounted the moments that led up to the stabbing.
The men had stopped at the park during a trip to
the West Coast, where Coughlin intended to pursue a master's degree in
environmental science at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
They planned to camp in Rattlesnake Canyon for one
night, then head back out the next morning. But they couldn't find the
trail they took down, Kodikian said. He said they spent the next three
days searching for a path that would lead them to the top. When they
couldn't find one, they would return to their campsite in hopes they
would be rescued.
They quickly ran out of water. After two days, with
buzzards circling overhead and nothing to eat except prickly pear
fruit, they discussed committing suicide. On the third day, Coughlin
spent several hours vomiting mucus and bile, Kodikian said.
The next day, Coughlin, convinced the two would
never be found, begged Kodikian to end his pain, Kodikian testified.
He said Coughlin told him to get the knife and put it in his chest.
Kodikian stabbed him twice.
During the sentencing hearing, the prosecutor asked
Kodikian whether he knew what he was doing at the time.
"What I thought I was doing was keeping my friend
from going through 12 to 24 hours of hell before he died," Kodikian
said.
Murder Mystery In New Mexico
May 10, 2000
It's a normal rite of passage. Every year students
crisscross the country on their quest to higher education and seeking
adventure. Raffi Kodikian and David Coughlin were very close friends
for a long time. Heading west where Coughlin planned to study for his
masters degree in California, they stopped at Carlsbad Caverns
National Park for a one night stay in the desert. What should have
been fun in Rattlesnake Canyon turned into a four day hellish ordeal.
In the end Coughlin was dead, fatally stabbed to death by Kodikian who
described the act as a mercy killing.
The two friends arrived at Carlsbad Caverns on
August 4th of 1999. Both were very intelligent but didn't have any
desert camping or hiking experience. They purchased a topographical
map and hiked into Rattlesnake Canyon woefully unprepared with only
three pints of water and one pint of Gatorade. The next day when they
went to hike out, their meager water supply already gone, they
couldn't find the trail. After a day of wandering through the desert
they returned to their camp, exhausted, demoralized, and without food
or water.
As the hours turned into days dehydration took it's
toll. Kodikian described the desperate measures they took to survive,
including licking rocks, eating prickly pear cactus fruit, even
drinking their own urine. On the third night in the desert, the two
were having cramps from dehydration and Coughlin spent most of the
night throwing up according to Kodikian. The next morning, with
buzzards circling overhead and what seemed like no viable chance for
rescue, Coughlin woke with an awful resolve and begged Kodikian to
kill him. The two argued and then making a suicide pact wrote
farewell messages in a notebook to their families. Kodikian stabbed
Coughlin in the chest twice, the second blow piercing his heart.
Minutes later Coughlin was dead on the desert floor. Kodikian cut his
own wrists but claimed the knife was too dull to cause lethal wounds.
Hours later park authorities found a dazed, dehydrated and wounded
Kodikian. Coughlin had been buried under a pile of rocks.
Even before the helicopter lifted off of the ground
to rush Kodikian to the hospital, park and local authorities were
questioning his story. Kodikian had buried Coughlin in a makeshift
tomb of rocks, some weighing more than 70 pounds. Quite the effort
for someone who had cut their wrists and was dehydrated. No one
doubts that Coughlin was in pain, but was the request a reasonable one?
An autopsy revealed that Coughlin was dehydrated, but not fatally.
What of Kodikian's medical condition? Doctors
disagree but some experts say that his condition did not represent
someone who had been without food and water for four days in the
desert. Park officials testified that Kodikian was coherent in the
afternoon sun when they found him lying in his tent with only a pair
of shorts on. As far as the story of being lost, two trail markers
were within view of the camp, no further than eighty feet apart.
Although Kodikian told authorities they climbed onto the ridge to try
to find the trail or a road, park roads are clearly visible from the
top of the ridges that surrounded their location. As Kodikian
received saline through IV at grizzly scene, he was handcuffed.
Kodikian recovered and returned to his native
Pennsylvania. Back in New Mexico, a Carlsbad grand jury decided to
indict him on charges of second-degree murder. Charges that in New
Mexico could come with a twenty-year sentence. On May 9th, the story
came full circle. Legal experts had advised Kodikian to plead
temporary insanity due to dehydration. However Kodikian struck a plea
bargain and agreed to plead no contest to the charges. By avoiding a
trial by jury and putting his fate in the hands of a judge, he spared
himself and his family the rigors of a trial, while leaving the door
open for an appeal.
Over the next two days during the sentencing phase
the Carlsbad courtroom heard chilling testimony of that fateful
morning on August 8th in the New Mexico desert. Prosecutors showed a
video tape of officials removing the rocks from Coughlin's tomb,
showing his shirt soaked in blood from a chest wound. Kodikian had
testified he buried his friend to prevent Coughlin's body from being
eaten by the buzzards. Park officials testified that Kodikian and
Coughlin were only a half-hour walk from their car, and woefully
equipped for desert camping. Kodikian buried his head frequently and
in shocking testimony described how he killed his friend.
Defense lawyers painted a different picture of two
very close friends who were under emotional and physical distress
during a camping trip that went incredibly wrong. They criticized the
National Park Service for the quality of the map and tried to convince
the judge that their own inability to understand survival in the
desert dropped them into a very extreme case of circumstance. Medical
experts testified how heat related panic has been documented for
hundreds of years and that under the conditions Kodikian and Coughlin
were suffering, could have very easily put them in a mental state
where they would make very irrational decisions. Kodikian's lawyers
tried to show that under the same set of circumstances, any of us
would have done what Kodikian had done.
On May 10th with family members of Kodikian and
Coughlin present, Chief District Judge Jay W. Forbes sentenced
Kodikian to fifteen-years in prison, and suspended thirteen-years of
the sentence as probation. Gary Mitchell, the lawyer for Kodikian,
who softly cried when the sentence was read, described the sentence as
fair. It was not decided if an appeal would be made.
By not having a trial we may never know what
happened those four days in the searing heat of the New Mexico desert.
Only two people know the complete and true story, and one of them has
taken it to his grave, and the other will have to live with the events
of those four days for the rest of his life.
