WATERLOO, Ill., Dec. 8 (UPI) -- An Illinois man forfeited his right to challenge his wife's statements when he killed her, prosecutors allege.
Monroe County prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday to use Sheri Coleman's statements as evidence in the first-degree murder trial of her husband, Christopher, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Coleman, former security chief for the Joyce Meyer Ministries, is charged with strangling his wife and their sons, Garett and Gavin, in their Columbia, Ill., home on May 5, 2009.
State's Attorney Kris Reitz said Sheri Coleman told friends that her husband beat her, and texted two of them, saying: "Chris wants a divorce. He said me and my kids are in the way of his job. He told me he's leaving me for his job! But if Joyce (Meyer) finds out she will fire him. It got so bad I told Joyce. He was [angry] to say the least but that was the breaking point. She forced him into counseling."
The defense is trying to block the material as hearsay, in part because Coleman cannot confront his accuser.
Police say Coleman staged the scene to look like the work of an enemy of the ministry and faked threatening letters in advance.
