Columbia murder victims' family seeking damages

CHESTER - An attorney for the family of three southwestern Illinois murder victims filed another motion requesting the assessment of damages.

Angela and Mario DiCicco of Chicago are seeking money to cover the cost of legal battle over the final resting place of the bodies. Their lawyer, Jack Carey, filed the motion asking Associate Judge Richard Aguirre to reconsider his dismissal of an initial petition to assess damages in Randolph County Court, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.

Sheri Coleman, 32, Angela DiCicco's daughter and Mario DiCicco's sister, was found strangled in her Columbia home in May 2009, along with her two sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9. Two years later, Christopher Coleman was convicted of killing his family so he could be with his mistress. He's now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

After Christopher Coleman's conviction, the DiCiccos filed paperwork to exhume the bodies from a Chester cemetery and move them to Chicago. His family filed a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in an effort to keep the bodies in Chester, but they ultimately lost.

Sheri Coleman's family is also continuing to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against Joyce Meyer Ministries, which employed Christopher Coleman as a personal bodyguard for the televangelist, in Monroe County.