Wrongful-death lawsuit filed in triple killing

WATERLOO -- The family of a southwestern Illinois woman found strangled in her home with her two sons filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Tuesday against her husband, who is already charged in the killings. Hours later, they got their first look inside the home and found disturbing graffiti spray painted on the walls by the killer.

Attorneys for Sheri Coleman's mother, Angela DeCicco, and brother Mario Weiss filed the lawsuit in Monroe County, where 32-year-old Christopher Coleman remains jailed without bond after being charged last week with three counts of first-degree murder in the May 5 killings.

Prosecutors allege he strangled Sheri Coleman, 31, and their two sons -- 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin -- in their Columbia home. He has pleaded not guilty.

Neither authorities nor court filings in the criminal case against Coleman have indicated a possible motive.

Tuesday's legal action will prevent Chris Coleman from immediately selling the home or its contents, said Sheri Coleman's cousin, attorney Enrico Mirabelli. Sheri Coleman's name was taken off the deed last year, but her family questions whether she knew about it or was coerced into signing off on it, Mirabelli said.

Until the judge's restraining order Tuesday that granted them access to the home, Sheri Coleman's family had been shut out, unable to retrieve photographs and other possessions and inventory what, if anything, had been removed by Christopher Coleman's family.

For roughly 45 minutes, Mirabelli and Weiss walked through the two-story home where many possessions were already boxed up, some marked "toys," according to Jack Carey, a Belleville attorney representing the family in the civil lawsuit. No pictures were on the walls, he said.

Carey was unable to say whether the packing took place before the killings or within days of them, when Coleman's family removed some things in a trailer.

"To think this home was a place of such horror is incomprehensible," Carey said.

While he said there were no telling signs of violence or struggle, Carey offered the first public details about graffiti the killer scrawled on the walls in red spray paint. "(Expletive) you, (expletive)" was written near the dining room, while "Whore paid" or "Uhave paid" was found elsewhere, he said. Near the kitchen, Carey said he saw: "I saw you leave. (Expletive) you. I am always watching."

Mirabelli called the writings "vicious."

"It just makes the whole thing more senseless to see who would write these things on the wall," he said.

Legal action was the only way to get some of Sheri Coleman's belongings for her mother, who has little more than "some wonderful pictures stuck on a refrigerator," Mirabelli said.

"We cannot strip Christopher Coleman of his dignity and his humanity. By his own actions he forfeited those virtues in the early morning hours of May 5, 2009," Mirabelli said. "But what we can do, and what we shall do, is to take from Christopher Coleman his worldly possessions by successfully prosecuting this claim.

"In a civilized society good will always triumph over evil. That is the way it must be and that is the way it shall be. This case shall be no different," he said.

Tuesday's legal action seeks financial documents about Chris Coleman from Joyce Meyer Ministries -- a Fenton, Mo.-based evangelical Christian group for which Coleman worked security until resigning after his arrest -- and from Coleman's father, Chester pastor Ronald Coleman.

A judge could order the ministry and Coleman's father to provide to Sheri Coleman's family such details as work history and financial information including life insurance policies, profit-sharing and other possible assets.

Roby Walker, a spokesman for Joyce Meyer Ministries, did not immediately return a message Tuesday from The Associated Press. A message also was left with Ronald Coleman's Grace Church Ministries.

Bill Margulis, a St. Louis-area attorney for Chris Coleman in the criminal matter, said Tuesday he had not seen the lawsuit and could not immediately comment.

Any proceeds from the lawsuit, which seeks at least $50,000 on each of two counts, would be used to erect a Columbia monument to the slain mother and two boys, attorneys said.