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Pasco woman testifies against ex-husband in shooting case

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By TODD LESKANIC | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 3, 2009

DADE CITY - Sylvia Grant and her then-husband, Joseph Coleman, stood on the porch of Grant's Stewart Road home on May 1, 2006.

"We made an agreement that he would go his way and I would go mine," Grant testified today.

Authorities say Coleman didn't abide by his end of the agreement: The next morning, he burst into Grant's house, beat her with a gun and then shot her in the neck and shoulder.

Grant, 36, told the harrowing story from the stand during the first day of her ex-husband's trial. Coleman, 56, of Lacoochee, is charged with kidnapping and attempted murder and faces a life sentence if found guilty as charged.

Testimony could conclude Wednesday.

Grant was living with family on Stewart Road at the time of the shooting. That morning, she left the house to take her children to Lacoochee Elementary and saw Coleman standing near her house.

Grant testified that she didn't stop and kept going to the school. When she returned home to clean and do chores, she heard a knock on the door. She tiptoed to the door, looked out the peephole and saw Coleman.

He'll leave if I don't answer, she recalled thinking.

"I sat back down and it wasn't five minutes later that he kicked the door in," Grant testified.

Coleman pulled a gun from under his shirt and got on top of Grant. She testified that Coleman told her, "You think my family wasn't going to tell me who you were sleeping with?"

She said he tried to force the weapon into her mouth but she wouldn't let him. Shots rang out. Suddenly, Grant was having trouble breathing and her right arm went numb.

Grant testified that she begged Coleman to take her to a nearby fire station for help. She had no cell phone or home phone. She said Coleman resisted, afraid she would tell authorities who shot her.

Grant said Coleman told her he planned to drive her around until she passed out and died. She said he put her into her van at gunpoint, drove her to U.S. 301 and turned north. But when they came to Trilby Road, Coleman turned west, away from the fire station.

Grant testified that she decided then that her only hope was to jump from the moving van. She exited the vehicle at U.S. 301 and Trilby, jumped up and "took off running" across 301 and toward the fire station.

She lost steam at a phone company building before she got to the fire station. Steve Vickers, a phone company employee, happened to be outside and saw Grant.

"She was covered with blood from head to toe," Vickers testified.

Vickers said he put Grant into his truck and drove her to the fire station. She kept saying, "Help me, help me."

Paramedics stabilized Grant and she was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa.

Grant testified that she awoke in the hospital to a picture of Coleman's face on the TV news. She spent two weeks recovering. The bullet that struck her in the neck damaged her voice box, leaving her with a noticeable rasp.

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (813) 731-8098.

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