Appeals court upholds Coleman convictions

COLUMBIA, Ill. - A state appeals court has upheld the three murder convictions of a southwestern Illinois man serving life in prison in the 2009 killings of his wife and their two young sons.

The Mount Vernon-based 5th District Appellate Court issued a ruling Wednesday that found circumstantial evidence presented at Christopher Coleman's Monroe County trial was "overwhelming."

Coleman had argued that a judge during his 2011 trial wrongly allowed hearsay testimony about his failing marriage. Coleman also questioned testimony about the victims' time of death and prosecutors' use of a forensic linguist and of sexually provocative photos and videos of Coleman's mistress.

Sheri Coleman was 32 when she was found strangled in her Columbia home southeast of St. Louis, along with her two sons 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin.