GARETT and GAVIN COLEMAN - (2009) / Convicted: Father Chris Coleman - Columbia IL

Bodies of murdered Coleman family moved to Chicago area

10 hours ago
By Marlon A. Walker mwalker@post-dispatch.com

CHESTER, Ill. • The bodies of Sheri Coleman and her two young sons were taken Wednesday to new graves in northern Illinois, Evergreen Cemetery Sexton Mark Gibbs said.

Gibbs said the bodies were exhumed Tuesday morning and taken on a truck Wednesday to the Chicago area, where Sheri Coleman’s family lives. On a permit application for the move, her family had listed the Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Cook County as the destination.

In court last month, Sheri Coleman’s family won the right to relocate the bodies from Evergreen Cemetery, a site chosen by her husband, Christopher Coleman. He later was convicted of strangling Sheri, and their sons — Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9 — in their beds at their Columbia, Ill., home. They were found on May 5, 2009.

Prosecutors said he killed them rather than risk a divorce that would expose an extramarital affair and thus potentially jeopardize his job as security chief for televangelist Joyce Meyer.

Christopher Coleman is appealing his May 2011 murder convictions. His parents had fought unsuccessfully in court to keep the bodies in Chester, where they live, at least until the appeals are over. Sheri Coleman’s family said her only connection to Chester was her husband.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/bodies-of-murdered-coleman-family-moved-to-chicago-area/article_4cc6bad1-a254-5805-967a-639763f5ec76.html

Coleman attorney appeals case; argues jurors were shown 'salacious' videos

BY BETH HUNDSDORFER
News-DemocratFebruary 8, 2014

The jurors who decided the case of Chris Coleman, who is serving life in prison for the strangulation murders of his wife and sons, were prejudiced by salacious videos and explicit photos of Coleman and his lover, said his lawyer who is appealing Coleman's conviction.

Peter Wise, a Springfield attorney retained to represent Coleman in the appeal, filed a brief on Coleman's behalf in the 5th District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon in October.

"Most of the issues are based on what we believe to be errors made by the trial judge on the admission of evidence against Mr. Coleman, including a number of salacious photos and video," Wise said. "The State claimed these established a motive for the killing and we believe that they have very little to do with motive and the State went completely overboard in what they sought to present and what the judge allowed to the prejudice of Mr. Coleman."

Those exhibits included nude photographs and videos of Coleman and his lover, Tara Lintz, and videos of Coleman masturbating. At trial, Monroe County State's Attorney Kris Reitz argued the jury needed to see photos and videos because it showed motive and the intensity of the Coleman-Lintz relationship. Circuit Judge Milton Wharton, now retired, allowed the photos to be shown and video to be played for the jury.

The other issues on appeal include:

* Whether the judge erred in allowing the state to present the testimony of a linguist on the issue of authorship attribution.

* Whether the judge erred in admitting the testimony of Lindell Moore, who attempted to compare spray-painted graffiti to Coleman's handwriting.

* Whether the judge erred in allowing the testimony of Marcus Rogers and Kenneth Wojtowicz as their testimony violated Coleman's right to confrontation and was inadmissible hearsay.

* Whether the judge erred when he allowed into evidence a hardware store receipt and allowed a witness to testify it was for red spray paint.

* And whether the state provided enough evidence to prove Coleman guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sharon Shanahan, an attorney with the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor's Office, will file a response. That is due on March 31. She could not be reached for comment.

Wise, who is privately retained, expects to argue the case before a three-judge panel in late spring or early summer, he said Friday. He does not expect Coleman to attend the argument.

Coleman, 37, is currently serving a life sentence for the murders of his wife, Sheri Coleman, 31, and his sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9. The mother and sons were found strangled in the beds of their Columbia home on May 5, 2009.

While the criminal case was pending, Sheri Coleman's mother, Angela DiCicco, and her brother Mario DiCicco, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Joyce Meyer Ministries, Chris Coleman's employer. That lawsuit was dismissed last year. The DiCiccos appealed.

The wrongful death lawsuit is scheduled to be argued before the 5th District Appellate Court on March 4.

In the suit, the DiCiccos stated the Ministry provided Coleman with a laptop that Coleman used to send death threats to his family. The complaint also stated the ministry knew the Coleman's marriage was in trouble and sent them to marriage counseling. The lawsuit stated the ministry did nothing to investigate the source of the threats.

Mike King, a Tulsa, Okla., attorney who represents Joyce Meyer Ministries, has denied Coleman's job would have been in jeopardy and said an employer is not responsible for ensuring an employee's conduct.

The DiCiccos are represented by Belleville attorney Jack Carey and Chicago attorney Tony Romanucci.

In 2009, Joyce Meyer Ministries was previously ordered to provide documents including Chris Coleman's work timetable, salary, benefits, life insurance information, ministry's employee handbook and airline tickets and schedules on commercial flights and private airline passenger lists from Joyce Meyer Ministries for travel in connection to Chris Coleman's former job there as a security guard.

Carey then asserted that there was evidence that Chris Coleman was meeting Lintz while flying on a Meyer Ministries jet. Carey also mentioned negligent retention where "if an employer knows that an employee is violating your policies, and you keep them employed, there is culpability."

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2014/02/08/3047395/coleman-attorney-appeals-case.html#storylink=cpy

What’s happened to the Coleman memorial money?

POSTED 10:22 PM, JULY 29, 2014
BY CHRIS HAYES

(KTVI) – A best friend of murder victim Sheri Coleman wants to know where about $35,000 went.  It was money raised to build a memorial for Sheri and her two boys.  A jury convicted the husband, Chris Coleman, of strangling them.

Citizens raised tens of thousands after the 2009 Coleman murders.  Those funds led to the creation of a non-profit group called Sheri Ann and her boys.  Sheri`s friend Meegan Turnbeaugh helped start it, but stepped down in 2010, in order to let Sheri`s family manage the money.  She showed us copies of checks totaling about $35,000 and adds that she`s never heard what happened to it.

Turnbeagh testified in the 2011 trial, in which a jury convicted Chris Coleman for murder.  She also set created the former Web site for people to remember Sheri, Gavin and Garett.  It led to donations in their memory.

Turnbeaugh told FOX2, ‘That money needs to be spent in the right way. The community helped raise that money and there were so many people that gave a ton of their time and donated items and bought tickets to come to some of the events.  So I`m just praying that the money was used wisely.’

She was still involved when an architect designed an elaborate monument, but it never broke ground.  Sheri`s brother, Mario Decicco, wondered if his sister would think it was too much.  He broke down when he talked to us in 2011, saying ‘I think she’d be very proud.  I think she’d be very happy about it.  I think she’d be astounded, she would be uh, she would be uh blown away by it.”

At the time, Decicco said they made a few donations to the Violence Prevention Center of Southwestern Illinois.  He told me the donations added up to $6,000.  But that`s all we`ve heard about and now, according to the State of Illinois, the Secretary of State dissolved the non -profit, Sheri Ann and her boys, this past November.  The dissolution order states the reason as, ‘failure to file an annual report.’

Turnbeaugh said, ‘My hope would be that something would have been done to memorialize them. I`m bringing this up now because I would like final closure on that chapter of my life. Not that I would fully heal from it, but I can finally put everything to rest.”

FOX2 has made more than half a dozen attempts to get answers. So far we`ve not heard from anyone with answers.  The Dicicco family attorney, who`s also listed as the registered agent on the non-profit, called me today to say he doesn’t know what happened to the money.  He said that was many years ago.  He added that he`d leave a message for the former non-profit`s president, Mario Decicco to call me.

Turnbeaugh showed us copies of checks totaling about $35,000 that she said she turned over to Sheri`s family in 2010.  She said that was after she wrote a $3,000 check, on the organization`s behalf, to the domestic violence center.  During our 2011 interview with DeCicco, he mentioned a second donation of $3,000 and he added that he would send half of future donations to the domestic violence center, while keeping plans to build a memorial.

http://fox2now.com/2014/07/29/whats-happened-to-the-coleman-memorial-money/