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St. Pete woman linked to Illinois man accused of killing family

The Associated Press

Investigators say Christopher Coleman killed his wife Sheri and her two sons, 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin.

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The Associated Press

Published: May 29, 2009

WATERLOO, Ill. - A man charged in the strangling deaths of his wife and their two sons was having an affair with a Florida woman and planned to get a divorce so he could marry her next year, according to court documents released today.

Christopher Coleman's alleged girlfriend, Tara Lintz of St. Petersburg, told investigators that Coleman assured her by e-mail after the May 5 slayings that he was not the killer and had an alibi, according to a newly released affidavit.

Investigators have not publicly offered a possible motive in the killings of Sheri Coleman, 31, and her two sons, 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin. Their bodies were found in their Columbia home and Coleman, a 32-year-old former Marine, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in their deaths.

He remains jailed without bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 10.

Lintz, identified in court papers as a "good friend" of Sheri Coleman, admitted having a sexual relationship with Christopher Coleman since last November and said he planned to be divorced by June 14, about five weeks after the killings, according to the affidavit. Coleman also admitted the relationship to investigators, the documents say.

Lintz also allegedly told investigators she spoke with Christopher Coleman the night of May 4, just hours before the killings.

A message left by The Associated Press today with Coleman's attorney, William Margulis, was not immediately returned.

A woman who answered the telephone Friday at a St. Petersburg-area phone listing for a Tara Lintz told the AP it was the wrong number.

Coleman told police his wife and children were asleep when he left the house on May 5 to work out at a Missouri gym about five miles away, but that he grew concerned when he could not reach them by telephone, Columbia police Detective Karla Heine has said in an affidavit. The bodies were later found by police after Coleman asked them to check on his family's welfare, Heine said.

In other search warrants released earlier this week, investigators said orange twine fashioned into a noose found near a Mississippi River bridge resembled cord tied around straw bales behind the Coleman home.

Investigators have said the victims were strangled with a ligature, perhaps a cord. The bridge where the noose was found alongside Interstate 255 was on the route Coleman would have taken to the gym the morning of the slayings, investigators said.

Coleman has said that he received anonymous threatening notes in January and again last month involving his work as a bodyguard with Joyce Meyer Ministries, a Missouri-based evangelical group, according to the court documents. The last allegedly warned, "THIS IS MY LAST WARNING! YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!"

Investigators have suggested Coleman sent the notes to himself and spray-painted vulgar slogans on some of the home's walls. One of those graffiti messages, according to an attorney for Sheri Coleman's family, read, "I saw you leave. (Expletive) you. I am always watching."

The graffiti echoed wording in an April 27 letter.

Sheri Coleman's mother and brother are sued Christopher Coleman, accusing him of negligently causing the deaths of his wife and children. That legal action prevents Christopher Coleman from immediately selling the home or its contents.

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.

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