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Joyce Meyer Ministries sued in murder case www.privateofficer.com
Jack Carey, a lawyer representing the relatives of Sheri Coleman, filed an addition Monday to a lawsuit against Joyce Meyer Ministries, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday. Carey said the ministries might have been able to prevent the killings.
Christopher Coleman, who worked as security manager for the Ministries, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He allegedly strangled Sheri Coleman, 31, and their sons, Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, May 5.
Previously, the Ministries was only a respondent-in-discovery, the newspaper said, which allowed lawyers for the plaintiffs to get information.
Coleman allegedly sent threats to himself and the Ministries before the killings in an effort to cast suspicion on someone with a grudge. The lawsuit says the Ministries did not report the threats to police, something its officials deny.
While it is not part of the lawsuit, Carey told the Post-Dispatch Coleman’s employer also knew he was having an affair, which he pursued during business trips.
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Police know who killed Joyce Meyer’s security guard’s family www.privateofficer.com
“Our investigation reveals who is responsible for these deaths,” said Maj. Jeff Connor, deputy commander of the Major Case Squad, adding it was “one person.”
He said he is “still anticipating charges in the future.”
Connor would not say whether that suspect is Christopher Coleman, whose wife, Sheri, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, were found dead in their bedrooms last week.
Police have kept a very obvious surveillance on Coleman, virtually camping out near his parents’ home in Chester, Ill., where he has stayed. The victims were buried Wednesday at Evergreen Cemetery in Chester, and Coleman was at the grave site. Later, detectives followed Coleman and his parents to what a lawyer said was a doctor’s appointment in Cape Girardeau for his mother.
On Monday, police got a court order to take fingerprints from Coleman, a former Marine and now a security officer for the worldwide Joyce Meyer Ministries, based in Jefferson County.
But Wednesday afternoon, officers watching the house in Chester abruptly left town. Connor said they would stop monitoring Coleman’s movements.
The Post-Dispatch reported Wednesday that police have interviewed a woman in Largo, Fla., whom they said was Coleman’s girlfriend. The woman, a friend of Sheri Coleman’s since at least high school and onetime hostess at a men’s club, has not responded to messages left at her parents’ home and current workplace, where she is a cocktail waitress.
Coleman’s lawyers have declined to comment on whether he had a girlfriend. Sheri Coleman’s relatives have said they were unaware of an affair.
Connor would not discuss it, except to confirm that police had been to Florida.
He said investigators presented their evidence Wednesday to Monroe County State’s Attorney Kris Reitz. “It was decided at this time to defer charges until further forensics (testing) comes back, and/or further interviews, documents, reports,” the detective said.
Reitz told a reporter later Wednesday, “I can’t talk about the progress of the investigation. I don’t have any comment beyond that.”
Without witnesses, police have been left to try to build a circumstantial case based on various factors, such as time of death.
Officials assured neighbors from the start that the victims appeared to have been specifically targeted.
Christopher Coleman had complained of work-related threats, but police would not give details.
Connor, of the Granite City police, said the Major Case Squad will decide today whether to continue or turn the investigation back to Columbia police. The squad is a multi-agency cooperative that provides short-term manpower and expertise to small police departments.
By law, Reitz has two ways to bring charges: He can file a complaint and leave a judge to decide in a public preliminary hearing if the evidence is sufficient for trial. Or he can take the evidence to a grand jury, which would decide in secret if a trial is warranted. Either way, Illinois has a rigid timetable if someone under charges demands a speedy trial.
The case has drawn national attention to a mainly rural county that rarely sees a murder, let alone three at once. Monroe County’s last big murder case came a few years ago.
In October 2004, Reitz filed a first-degree murder charge against the husband of Twila Wiley, 21, a pregnant woman found shot to death 14 months earlier in a park at Waterloo. The prosecution cited her extramarital affair as a motive, but the jury acquitted the man after the defense argued that her death was really a suicide.
Police said Christopher Coleman left home at 2854 Robert Avenue about 5:45 a.m. May 5 to work out at a gym in St. Louis County, and called police shortly before 7 a.m. because he could not reach his family by phone. Officers found the bodies. Neighbors said police told them the victims were strangled.
Connor said detectives have focused a search along a stretch of Interstate 255 near the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, not mentioning that it would be Coleman’s route to the gym.
“We believe there was evidence discarded along this route,” he explained, but did not say what.
Connor also said a window was found open in the back of the house, with no sign that it was forced.
Neither Coleman nor his immediate family members have spoken publicly about the crime.
Derek Doiron, a longtime family friend, said Coleman’s parents are standing behind their son and do not believe he had anything to do with the slayings. Doiron is associate pastor at Grace Church in Chester, where Chris Coleman’s father, Ronald Coleman, is a minister.
“There is still somebody who is capable of murder still out there,” Doiron said.
He emphasized that he is not a spokesman for the church or family, but said he talks frequently with them.
“It’s just been very difficult for the family,” he said. “That’s the side you don’t see or you don’t hear. They are breaking down. … Just because you don’t see them crying doesn’t mean they don’t hurt.”
Doiron said investigators have not shared any details of the case with the Colemans. “It’s been a week and we don’t have any information,” he said.
He said that while some seem to be pointing a finger at Christopher Coleman, the family believes the victims were targeted by an outsider. He said he believes Coleman is not capable of such acts.
“Look at his history and the things that he’s done in his lifetime,” Doiron said. “He’s got an exemplary record.”
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