Sheri Coleman's brother Mario Weiss, left, and cousin Enrico Mirabelli held a news conference outside the Monroe County Courthouse in Waterloo, Ill. Tuesday, May 26, 2009, to announce a wrongful death lawsuit against her husband Chris Coleman on behalf of Sheri Coleman's family. (AP Photo/Steve Nagy/Belleville News-Democrat)A lawyer for the family of murder victim Sheri Coleman described Tuesday what the alleged killer wrote on the walls of the family's home in red spray paint at the time of the murders.
Sheri, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, of Columbia, Illinois, were strangled in the early hours of May 5 and left dead their bedrooms. Husband and father Christopher Coleman was charged and arrested for the murders. Last week, he pleaded not guilty to the triple homicide and settled in his new accommodations at the jailhouse after a judge denied bond.
Previously, it had been reported the killer wrote something along the lines of "I told you so" on a wall downstairs, but it turns out Coleman was much more creative than that. Perhaps it was the adrenaline rush in his body after killing his wife and children that inspired him to elaborate.
Lawyer Jack Carey said the killer wrote:
- "Fuck you bitch" and "Punished" in the dining room.
- "I told you so" by the stairs.
- "Whore paid" and "U have paid" upstairs.
- "I saw you leave. Fuck you. I am always watching" in the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Angela DeCicco and Mario Weiss, the mother and brother of Sheri Coleman, filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against Coleman "to strip the culpable party of all financial holdings--all that he has now and all that he may ever have," according to a statement accompanying the suit filed in Monroe County circuit court.
"To allow one penny of ill-gotten gain to be derived at the expense of Sheri, Garett and Gavin is not acceptable to those who dearly love them," DeCicco and Weiss said in the statement.
The money would go to a memorial fund set up for the three murder victims. "These funds will be used to erect a lasting tribute in the city of Columbia," according to the suit.
"Our goal is to extract something positive from such a horrific and senseless tragedy and to honor the lives of my sister and her two young sons," Weiss told the press outside the court house.
The wrongful death suit also names Coleman's father, Ronald, and the Joyce Meyer Ministries, where Coleman worked until shortly after his family was killed, as "respondents in discovery," which means they may be forced to hand over financial documents and information such as Coleman's personnel file, his work schedule and travel itineraries and the Ministries' employment policies, CNN reported.
The suit claims the Colemans took the deed to their home in 2005, but six months ago ownership was transferred to Christoper Coleman alone, CNN added. "Sheri did not voluntarily sign the deed transferring title to the residence to Christopher," the document states.
The civil suit also alleges that in the period between the killings and his arrest, Coleman removed personal property from the house and asks Coleman and anyone "acting at his direction" be forbidden from entering the home again and that he provide a list of items already removed, CNN reported.
This is about to get as nasty as it gets, if you ask me.
Sources: CNN, The Associated Press, CBS News
Copyright © 2009
Posts
